Amateur photographer Mike Davies from Cadoxton Neath, has always been interested in photography since a very young child, and loves to take photographs of weather, the wilder the better, but he also looks to the skies for interesting cloud formations which he often gets screened on BBC Wales and ITV1 Wales along with them being screened on the weather slot on NBC Augusta.

He has also been a loyal member of the “Cloud Appreciation Society” since its concept where members from all over the world send in photographs of unusual cloud formation.

Mike was approached by the magazine Nature Geoscience for a cloud photograph which they spotted on the Cloud Appreciation Society forum for publication on the front cover of their April edition which is available in book shops and on line.

Nature Geoscince mentions the cloud on the front cover as:

“Ice clouds in the tropical tropopause layer have a key role in dehydrating air that is entering the stratosphere. Cloud-chamber measurements suggest that their high humidity can be explained if heterogeneous ice nucleation on glassy aerosols is a significant nucleation mechanism in this region. The image shows cirrus clouds over Neath, South Wales, UK. Image by Mike Davies.”

Mike tells us he is on cloud nine over this wonderful scoop and here is Mike “reaching for the skies”

You can see the front cover here