On May 23, 2009 over Wantagh, New York a cone of water vapor surrounds an F/A-18F Super Hornet airplane as it approaches the sound barrier during the New York Air Show at Jones Beach State Park.

Rings like this can form as an aircraft traveling low over the water nears the speed of sound. Pressure created by sound waves squeezes moisture from the air, creating the “artificial cloud.”

See the full story here

Cloud Appreciation Society member, Keijo Rikala, has sent us details of an exhibition to be held in Espoo near Helsinki.

From 5 June to 13 September 2009 at the Gallen-Kallela Museum, the summer exhibition will lead visitors to the sources of meteorological phenomena. It particularly focuses on clouds and their numerous forms. The exhibition offers a journey from horizons glowing red with the setting sun as depicted by Finnish romantic artists to foreboding thunder clouds, fantasy scenes and personal moods.

Visit the Museum website for full details.

The LABORATORIA Art & Scient Space invite you to the opening of CLOUD HARP by Nicolas Reeves in Moscow at LABORATORIA Art&Science Space on July 2.

LABORATORIA is the first nonprofit research centre in Russia focused on constructing the platforms of interdisciplinary interaction between contemporary art and science.

The Cloudspotter’s Guide has recently been translated into Russian and the CLOUD HARP was mentioned in it.

Besides the CLOUD HARP itself LABORATORIA will have an exhibition, CLOUD ATLAS which is supposed to give the holistic view on clouds and the cloudspotting. Artists as well as scientists – aerologists, meteorologists, physicists and glider pilots have been invited to share their professional and personal views and attitudes on clouds.

The more we learn about it the more we are fascinated by the beatiful and complicated world of clouds.

Visit the LABORATORIA Art & Scient Space website here.

Cloud watcher Fiaz Kauser has sent us an article which discusses cloud formation in the Koran, a religious scripture dating back 1,400 years.

God has said in the Quran:

“Have you not seen how God makes the clouds move gently, then joins them together, then makes them into a stack, and then you see the rain come out of it….” (Quran, 24:43)

Read the full article here.

Cloud Appreciation Society member Giselle Goloy’s spectacular cloud photograph made the front page of a leading national daily newspaper in the Philippines earlier this year –

The same shot landed on the cover of the 2009 calendar produced by the Cloud Appreciation Society.

Read the full story here

….. whatever next!

Kikk.K is a Scandanavian designed stationery and gift supplier. They have recently launched and entire range of stationery inspired by Clouds. Its called the ‘Luft’ range which means ‘Air’ in Swedish.

There is a wide selection to choose from…

… which cloud are you?

Visit their website to see the full range.

Now is the ideal time to view Noctilucent clouds. These very high, and rather mysterious, clouds are at their best between June and August in the Northern Hemisphere. They are lit by sunlight in the middle of the night and tend to be a milky-blue and very thin so are only noticeable against the dark night sky. If you see them, you should report your observations Noctilucent Clouds Observer’s Group

You can see more of these clouds on the gallery page. And read more about them here

Craig Dremann, member number 14313 writes that dust clouds from the Gobi desert, may be helping to cause California drought. He adds that daily cloud pictures, taken this spring during the drought in California show the affects. This outline world map illustrates how the dust concentrations are supressing cloud formation.

You can read more about it here

It may not serve any booze, but the Cloud Bar on the beach at Anderby Creek in Lincolnshire, UK, has been sanctioned by The Cloud Appreciation Society as the world’s first ‘Official Clouspotting Area’. And, since it’s launch on 1 April 2009, it is now open to the cloudspotting public.

The Cloud Bar was the idea of artist, and CAS member, Michael Trainor. Replacing a disused beach shelter, the handsome wooden structure looks out to sea from this unspoilt stretch of the Lincolnshire coastline. On the viewing platform, are ‘Cloud Menus’ identifying the different formations, mirrors that can be swiveled to reflect different parts of the sky and specially designed cloud-viewing seats, on which visitors can recline and enjoy the view.

Local members of the Cloud Appreciation Society and Society photo gallery editor, Ian Loxley, attended the opening ceremony, in which BBC weatherman (and Society member), Paul Hudson, cut the blue ribbon. It was a shame that the event was rather marred by the weather: there was barely a cloud in the sky.

Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, its an Altocumulus lenticularis.

This UFO spotted over Wales in January 2009 came not from the other side of the Cosmos, but the other side of the Irish Sea.

Read all about it in the UK’s Telegraph newspaper.

A rather more dramatic visitation had arrived the month before in the vicinity of Mt Rainier in Washington State, US. Some photographs of this extra-terrestrial cloud event were sent into the society’s Cloud Gallery (e.g. here and here).

To learn about lenticularis clouds, which is what these were, you might like to look back at the Cloud of the Month for April 2005.

Get them into clouds from an early age.

Ann Dickinson, member 5007, emailed us to tell us about how to introduce clouds onto both your walls and onto your iPod.

The wall versions come in the form of removable stickers, called ‘Cloud Re-Stik‘, and are created by Blik Surface Graphics.

The iPod application, called iDaydream, allows you to create your own clouds in a virtual sky by swiping your finger over the screen to create little puffs. These cloudy creations then float across the sky and shift shapes in the breeze. You can control the wind direction, speed, and turbulence level to change the effects.

Clouds in 3D on your TV

For those of you who do not have a window, or who are wearing a neck brace and so are unable to look up, you can now watch clouds in 3D on your TV.

Artists Brian McClave and Gavin Peacock have produced ‘Cloud II’, a stereoscopic DVD, which you watch wearing some of those blue and red 3D glasses. Since they are artists, they have made DVD in a limited edition of 100, each individually numbered by hand.

You can buy a copy and see a clip from the DVD here:
http://www.themanfromicon.com/dvd/cloudII.html
Running time: 30 minutes. Format: DV-PAL, all regions

Listen again to Head in the Clouds on Radio 3

Tim Oxton emailed us to tell us five cloud programmes airing on BBC Radio 3, called ‘Head in the Clouds’. They are part of the series called The Essay, and go out every night at 23.00 (GMT) on Radio 3 from 23rd to 27th February 2009.

If you miss the broadcasts, you can listen again for the seven days following broadcast:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00hw8vj/episodes/2009

Each is a lucid and enlightening insight into the cultural significance of clouds throughout civilisation.

Here’s another fun way to sharpen up your cloud recognition skills.

It’s one of life’s little ironies that one of the most stunning cloud sequences on film appears in a Nazi propaganda film.

Thanks to a certain lipstick pitbull, the long-running debate about whether we are responsible for climate change has been given some high-profile coverage.

Listening to the news yesterday, you might have been forgiven for thinking it was April 1st, not September 1st.

Here’s the perfect thing for cloud lovers looking for some light relief.

Fans of the Clouds That Look Like Things section of our world-famous photo gallery may want to check out the Environmental Graffiti website.

Do you sometimes confuse your cirrus with your altostratus?

Our American members, and intrepid international travellers, may care to drop in on a cloud-friendly exhibition in the Cape Cod area.

The fantastic photos taken by our members have helped make our cloud gallery famous throughout the world.

Arguments still rage about whether NASA’s space programme has been worth all those billions, but you have to admit astronauts take great pictures.

We can all breathe a sigh of relief – cloudspotting has got the thumbs up from New York’s fashion elite.

Cirrus clouds are performing a disappearing act which is taking scientists by surprise.

If you were lucky enough to be off the coast of Mexico last month, you might have been treated to a spectacular optical effect known as a glory.

Soon our skies may feature Mickey Mouse ears and Coca-Cola symbols, thanks to the latest bright idea in advertising.

Earthbound cloud watchers will be glad to know they are not alone.

China is preparing to fire rockets at any clouds threatening to rain on the Olympics opening ceremony.

Too much time on your hands? Looking for something to amuse the kids? Then why not try this game.

Fewer clouds may have led to super-greenhouse episodes

Cloud lovers will be proud to hear that our fluffy friends may soon be helping to slow down global warming.

As experienced spotters will know, low clouds can sometimes line up parallel to the wind to form cumulus radiatus, also known as cloud streets.

There is startling evidence that clouds are also home to a range of tiny organisms.

Is this a photograph of a UFO, or just a car park on a foggy night?

What do homemade smoke bombs and musical interludes have to do with clouds?

Two exhibitions in London museums featuring cloud content.

Never underestimate the power of clouds.

An unidentified flying cloud (UFC) has been spotted in Hungary.

Ever wondered what a journey through clouds might sound like?