April 2014

The Clouds Never Sleep

We think of cloudspotting as a predominantly daytime activity. But, as the Cloud of the Month for April shows, it needn’t be when there is a full moon. This evocative scene photographed by Hakan Pleijel is of Lapporten, in the Arctic Circle of Swedish Lapland. The distinctive U-shaped mountain valley is known as ‘The Lapponian Gate’. The moonlight reveals that the valley is bedded with tufts of flowing Stratus, and the peaks to either side are draped in blankets of silky cap clouds. We are grateful to Hakan for so beautifully reminding us that the clouds, of course, never sleep.

Photograph © Hakan Pleijel.