This article from Hyperallergic.com explains how Luke Howard’s classification of clouds in 1802 and their subsequent study influenced artists from John Constable to J. M. W. Turner. It includes sketches from the ‘Essay on the modifications of clouds’ by Luke Howard (1865 edition) as well as links to other studies and scientific exhibitions.

The Royal Meteorological Society (RMetS) and the Royal Photographic Society (RPS) have recently launched their joint photo competition to award the Weather Photographer of the Year.

There are two broad categories for this competition – 16 and under, and over 16s. The RMetS and RPS are looking for the best photographs from around the world that depict weather in its widest sense.

This could range from weather phenomena such as clouds, lightning, rain, fog or snow through to the impact of weather on humans, cities and the natural landscape. They are looking for stunning images that might be dramatic in what they depict or because of the story they tell of the impact of weather.
The selectors will include a mix of meteorologists, photographers and photo editors who will look for work that combines photographic skill with meteorological observation. Peter Gibbs, BBC weather presenter and RMetS Fellow, is confirmed as one of the judges for the competition. Peter started his weather career in Antarctica, but is now a familiar face as one of the Met Office team at the BBC Weather Centre.
He said “Weather presenting is all about storytelling, so I’ll be looking for a picture that tells a tale, taking the viewer to that moment”.
Weather Photographer of the Year and the winners from each category will be announced at the RMetS Amateur Meteorologists’ Conference at the University of Reading on 10-11th September 2016 (http://www.rmets.org/amateur2016).

Applications can be submitted via the competition website www.weather-photo.org. The deadline for the competition is 26th May 2016.

Charlie Waite, world-renowned landscape photographer and CAS Member 39,333, tells us why the sky is one of the most important things to consider when creating a successful landscape photograph.

Cloud Appreciation Society founder, Gavin Pretor-Pinney, recently collaborated with Rodale’s Organic Life to write an article about different cloud types including the “King of Clouds” shown here, roll clouds and mamma along with several others.

The article includes wonderful images and descriptions written by Gavin and can be seen in full on Rodale’s Organic Life website.

This strange triangle in the sky was filmed by the Planche family in Mississippi, US. They were mystified by the peculiar red lines of light that they observed, and which have since become known as “The Mississippi Triangle”.

Our friends at the World Meteorological Organisation have asked for help from our members. They’re working on a new edition of the official reference book on the classification of clouds, the International Cloud Atlas, and they are currently gathering photographs to include. We’ve helped out with our competition to find a photograph of the new ‘asperitas’ cloud but the WMO are also looking for good examples of a range of different cloud types. If you like the sound of your photograph becoming an international cloud reference image, you can sign up and find our more on the WMO Image Submission page.

[vc_row row_type=”row” use_row_as_full_screen_section=”no” type=”full_width” text_align=”left” css_animation=””][vc_column][vc_column_text]

Many congratulations to Gary McArthur of Burnie, Tasmania, Australia!

[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row row_type=”row” use_row_as_full_screen_section=”no” type=”full_width” text_align=”left” css_animation=””][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_column_text]The winner of the Cloud Appreciation Society Asperitas Competition was announced at our Escape to the Clouds event at the Royal Geographical Society in London on Saturday 26 September 2016. Gary McArthur’s photograph of the asperitas cloud was chosen from the shortlist (see below) by a task team brought together by the World Meteorological Organisation to update their International Cloud Atlas. Many congratulations to Gary. His photograph is due to be used as the asperitas reference image in the forthcoming edition of the International Cloud Atlas. He also wins our ‘ultimate cloudspotter’s kit’.

George Anderson, one of the UK members of the WMO task team, joined us live at our event via Skype to tell us the team’s decision. the Since 2008, we have argued that this dramatic and distinctive cloud formation deserves a classification of its own. Now The World Meteorological Organisation have announced that they’re planning to make it the first new cloud classification since 1951.

George Anderson explained the thinking behind their choice of winner. “We were looking for a photograph that most faithfully represents the cloud feature,” he told our conference, “and that meant that we weren’t necessarily looking for the most dramatic image. This photograph will be used as the reference image to train future meteorologists and weather observers in identifying the cloud feature.”[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_single_image image=”82596″ img_size=”large” add_caption=”yes” alignment=”center” qode_css_animation=””][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row row_type=”row” use_row_as_full_screen_section=”no” type=”full_width” text_align=”left” css_animation=””][vc_column][vc_separator type=”normal” border_style=”” down=”25px”][vc_column_text]

Here are the rest of the shortlisted entries

We are very grateful to all the photographers who entered the competition. The WMO team said that there were some really great entries and that the choice was not at all easy. Each of the shortlisted entries was a fantastic example of an asperitas cloud.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row row_type=”row” use_row_as_full_screen_section=”no” type=”full_width” text_align=”left” css_animation=””][vc_column][vc_empty_space][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row row_type=”row” use_row_as_full_screen_section=”no” type=”full_width” text_align=”left” css_animation=””][vc_column][vc_gallery type=”image_grid” images=”82377,82379,81938,49711,82384,82387,81596″ img_size=”large” column_number=”3″ grayscale=”no”][/vc_column][/vc_row]

On Monday, 5th October, 7pm at The Tobacco Factory, Bristol Cloud Appreciation Society founder, Gavin Pretor-Pinney, will be amongst the speakers at the launch of the hit event series 5×15 in Bristol.

“5 speakers. 15 minutes each. No scripts. True stories of passion, obsession and adventure for the incurably curious…”

Please visit their website for full details.

Statesboro, Georgia. (Sarah K. Davis)

John Metcalf of CityLab.com recently posted an article about “asperitas,” the first new cloud type identified since 1951 and which the WMO will include in its revised 2016 International Cloud Atlas. The WMO have asked the Cloud Appreciation Society to provide a photograph if this new cloud type and we have recently launched a competition to find the best image with the winner to be announced at the Escape to the Clouds Conference in September.

John’s article has some wonderful images and you can read it in full here.

Later this month, we are holding our first major gathering on Saturday 26 September at the Royal Geographical Society in London. Marking ten years of the Society, it will be a celebration of the Science, Art and Culture of the Sky, and it’s going to be a truly international affair, with cloudspotters joining us from the US, Poland, Finland, Sweden, Germany, France, Switzerland and elsewhere.

All six of our amazing speakers are ready to inspire and inform, and we have a host of delightful ‘shorts’ taking place between talks. As a taster, here is the award-winning musician Lisa Knapp’s ‘Shipping Song’, which she will be performing for us on the day.

Find out more about ‘Escape to the Clouds’

Moatti Masters|Contemporary is pleased to present a major
exhibition of works by the Italian landscape painter Alberto
Bertoldi at their gallery premises on Mount Street in Mayfair,
London. The exhibition brings together a recent collection of
works alongside special commissions from the artist’s Cloud
series, being shown for the first time in the UK. Alberto Bertoldi
(b. 1955) began staging award-wining solo shows across Italy in
the early 1990’s, before going on to exhibit worldwide at galleries
and shows including Daegu in South Korea, Galerie
Zur.Hofstatt in Basel, Hermitage Gallery in Texas, USA, and
Society Redaktionfest in Vienna. In 2012 he exhibited at the 54TH
Venice Biennale, under the curatorship of Vittorio Sgarbi. He
has been awarded numerous prizes throughout his career
including the Purchase Award and Solo Artist Award from Forni
Gallery. Alberto Bertoldi’s Cloud works represent a
contemporary exploration of the Classical traditions of “plein
air” painting, capturing the beauty of painting natural light in all
its power and exploring the human obsession with cloud
formations. This is the inaugural show for Moatti
Masters|Contemporary – a new venture by Emmanuel Moatti
combining his 30 years career in old masters with his passion for
collecting contemporary art, to open a gallery space connecting
the two disciplines and work with living fine artists who draw
inspiration from the art-historical language, in order to create a
new modernity.

The exhibition runs from 1st to 30th October at Moatti Masters|Contemporary, 23 Mount Street, London, W1K 2RP – for more details, please see their website Moatti Masters|Contemporary

Back in 2011 we wrote a news item about the strange lights that can sometimes be seen dancing in the sky above storm clouds – Dancing Clouds. We saw in a recent post by the Bad Astronomer at Slate Magazine that these amazing light effects, caused by the ice crystals above the storm cloud aligning with the shifting electrostatic fields caused by lightening strikes below, were given a name back in 1971.

In a letter to Nature Magazine about a sighting in 1970, this amazing light effect was named “A Crown Flash”.

Cloud Appreciation Society member, Mick Garton from Edinburgh in the UK contacted us recently with an innovative idea for what to do with your car tax disc holder now that it no longer has to be displayed on your windscreen in the UK. He has slipped in one of the CAS embroidered patches. As you can see from the photograph he sent us, it fits perfectly and is much more interesting and eye-catching!

On Thursday, 25th June, City University London will be holding an event, “The Weather Experiment: Clouds, Storms and Music” in conjunction with WAM (Weather Art and Music). Join author Peter Moore and singer Pierrette Thomet for an evening of art, music and weather. They will examine Robert FitzRoy’s forecasting experiment, John Constable’s famous cloud sketches and there will be music inspired by weather and the sea. There will be a book signing of Peter Moore’s The Weather Experiment afterwards.

A further participant at the event will be Professor of Applied Meteorology, John Thornes, who is also one of the speakers at the Cloud Appreciation Society Conference which is being held on 26th September 2015 at The Royal Geographical Society, London.

Tuesday 16 June 2015, 6.30pm to 7.20pm
Berrick Saul Building, University of York

The BBC series Operation Cloud Lab: Secrets of the Skies brought together a team of scientists who travelled across the US in the world’s largest airship. Along the way they discovered that pollution can affect hurricane strength and they even managed to weigh a cloud. Join Jim McQuaid of the University of Leeds as he reveals some of the amazing sights that ended up on the cutting room floor.

Free tickets available at yorkfestivalofideas.com or via York Festival of Ideas.

As part of our monthly segment on The Weather Channel, Society founder Gavin Pretor-Pinney stuck up a whiteboard and drew a diagram to show how June’s Cloud of the Month forms.

Cloud enthusiast, Michelle Martin, recently posted a link on our Facebook page from The Weather Network. The image shows an average of 13 years of cloud cover data, from July 2002 to April 2015 with the data being collected by NASA’s Aqua satellite, using its Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) instrument (the darker the colour, the less cloudy it is).

The full article can be seen on The Weather Network website

Cloud enthusiast, Jan McIntyre, visited Rochester recently and whilst exploring the village her attention was caught by the decoration of a building and plaster plaque announcing “erected at the sole charge and expense of Sir Cloudsley Shovel in 1706”. Curious about the spelling of dear Cloudy’s name, she began looking on the internet and discovered a British heavy rock band called Admiral Sir Cloudesley Shovell, “named after a 17th century English naval commander” – obviously some variety in the spelling of his name!

Since her visit she has done further research and found The Ship and Shovell pub in Craven Passage, Charing Cross and was told by the Rochester Museum that there were a couple of pubs so-named. The pub in Charing Cross, although it is one, is on both sides of the passage and Jan tells us that it is lovely and cosy and inside there is another piece about the gentleman with his name spelt “Clowdisley”. Further, when looking for directions from Camden to Highbury, she noticed there was a Cloudsley Road along with a Street, Place and Square, all named after Cloudsley in Islington.

Monday 30 March saw a fantastic display of asperatus clouds over Georgia and North Carolina, US. The photographs below on the Society gallery were taken by LeeAnna Tatum of The Claxton Enterprise newspaper. At the bottom of the page, you can see time-lapse video of the formation.

Asperatus over Evans County, Georgia, US. Photograph by LeeAnna Tatum. © The Claxton Enterprise

Asperatus over Statesboro, Georgia, US. © Sarah K. Davis

This video posted by the US National Weather Service Columbia, South Carolina

On the 7th March a particularly dramatic display of lenticularis clouds formed over North Wales. They were of the form known as ‘pile d’assiettes’. This is the French for a pile of plates and refers to lenticular clouds that have the distinctive stacked appearance. You can see examples of the formations sent in to our photo gallery below.

Cloud enthusiast, Bernard L Reymond, recently sent us the link to NASA’s Cloud of the Day for 2nd March. This is an image of a Lenticular cloud, the Moon, Mars and Venus and was taken by Nuno Serrão. Once you have read all the information onthe NASA website about this photograph, you might also enjoy watching the associated video.

A solar eclipse will be visible from the UK on the morning of 20th March 2015. Although primarily an astronomical event, a solar eclipse can also affect the weather*. If you will have access to measurements of air temperatures, wind speeds, or can safely observe the cloud amount by eye, the Department of Meteorology at the University of Reading invites you to take part in NEWEx, the National Eclipse Weather Experiment, a citizen science project to collect weather data during the solar eclipse for detailed analysis. Full instructions for submitting data are given at www.met.reading.ac.uk. Some of the results from this endeavour are likely be discussed as part of a BBC Stargazing Live event on the day of the eclipse, and will also be analysed more formally.

*A brief summary of some of the anticipated eclipse-related weather changes is given here: How do solar eclipses affect the weather

The UAE is offering grants for research programmes into enhancing the yield from rain clouds. Anyone interested in applying for a grant would need to supply an online proposal by 16th March 2015.

For full details please visit the UAE Research Program for Rain Enhancement Science website.

This week, Mark Philips, a reporter for CBS Evening News in the US, visited us for a bit of cloudspotting.
Here is his report:

This is a photograph of Cloud Appreciation Society member 30943, Jazz Coathup. It was sent by her owner and companion Paul Coathup who says “this photo is slightly unusual in that she is lifting her head skywards, more often than not she prefers to lay on her back and just gaze upwards in wonder at the sheer variety of clouds that are free for all to see.”

Cloud enthusiast, Tim Oxton, recently sent us this story he saw on the EADT24 website. On 28 January the sky was blue and beautiful over Framlingham, Suffolk. But within minutes photographer Sarah Lucy Brown had captured a dramatic change in the sky. “The colours are incredible and quite a contrast from the blue to the dark grey, all in a matter of minutes,” she said.

To see her images, please view the EADT24 Gallery

ABC Online recently sent us a link to a story featured on their website. This image was captured by Peter Thompson who described it as a “water bomb falling”. The story goes on to explain that the Bureau of Meteorology said Mr Thompson’s rain bomb was in fact a sort of downburst known as a microburst. “A downburst is a concentrated downdraft, typically lasting five to 15 minutes, and is of unusually high speed such that it can cause damage on, or near, the ground,” the BoM website said.

To see the full article, please visit the ABC Online website

Cloud Appreciator, Helen Leavy, recently sent us this link to a very interesting article from Earth Sky.

It explains what Cloud Streets are and how they are formed using diagrams and satellite images such as the one shown here that the MODIS instrument on NASA’s Aqua satellite captured of cloud streets over the Black Sea on January 8, 2015. (NASA Earth Observatory image courtesy Jeff Schmaltz LANCE/EOSDIS MODIS Rapid Response Team, GSFC)

To read the full article, please visit the EarthSky.org website

The Nature and Human Life E-Magazine recently featured a photograph taken by the Cloud Appreciation Society Gallery Editor, Ian Loxley on their front page. The magazine is the first e-Academic Magazine focusing on Environmental Humanities in China. It is non-profit and free to all. It publishes several articles in both Chinese and English and it’s mission is to promote the academic communication between China and the West in the field of environmental humanities and to promote the research of environmental humanities to the public. The magazine is published online four times a year.

Click here to see the latest issue. Their website can be found here.

There are may ways of engaging with the sky, and when we are in the mood for sweeping generalisations it can feel as if there is a ‘male’ approach to the sky, involving nerdy cloud classifications, weather forecasting, and the like, as well as a ‘female’ one, focussing on the emotional quality of clouds and how they stimulate our imaginations. These stereotypes came to mind when we came across this 1733 poem by Dr Thomas Sheridan (1687-1738). Searching for some way to encapsulate womankind, Sheridan hit upon the idea that you can compare a lady to a cloud. He wrote this poem on the subject to his good friend, the famous 18th-Century satirist Jonathan Swift. Swift subsequently replied with a poem arguing that clouds are nothing like ladies, which is far too bawdy to repeat here.

Dr Thomas Sheridan in around 1730, looking a bit like a cloud himself.

A New Simile for The Ladies

by Dr Thomas Sheridan

I often tried in vain to find
A simile for womankind,
A simile, I mean, to fit ’em,
In every circumstance to hit ’em.
Through every beast and bird I went,
I ransack’d every element;
And, after peeping through all nature,
To find so whimsical a creature,
A cloud presented to my view,
And straight this parallel I drew:

Clouds turn with every wind about,
They keep us in suspense and doubt,
Yet, oft perverse, like womankind,
Are seen to scud against the wind:
And are not women just the same?
For who can tell at what they aim?

Clouds keep the stoutest mortals under,
When, bellowing, they discharge their thunder:
So, when the alarum-bell is rung,
Of Xanti’s everlasting tongue,
The husband dreads its loudness more
Than lightning’s flash, or thunder’s roar.

Clouds weep, as they do, without pain;
And what are tears but women’s rain?

The clouds about the welkin roam:
And ladies never stay at home.
The clouds build castles in the air,
A thing peculiar to the fair:
For all the schemes of their forecasting,
Are not more solid nor more lasting.

A cloud is light by turns, and dark,
Such is a lady with her spark;
Now with a sudden pouting gloom
She seems to darken all the room;
Again she’s pleased, his fear’s beguiled,
And all is clear when she has smiled.
In this they’re wondrously alike,
(I hope the simile will strike,)
Though in the darkest dumps you view them,
Stay but a moment, you’ll see through them.

The clouds are apt to make reflection,
And frequently produce infection;
So Celia, with small provocation,
Blasts every neighbour’s reputation.

The clouds delight in gaudy show,
(For they, like ladies, have their bow;)
The gravest matron will confess,
That she herself is fond of dress.

Observe the clouds in pomp array’d,
What various colours are display’d;
The pink, the rose, the violet’s dye,
In that great drawing-room the sky;
How do these differ from our Graces,
In garden-silks, brocades, and laces?
Are they not such another sight,
When met upon a birth-day night?

The clouds delight to change their fashion:
(Dear ladies, be not in a passion!)
Nor let this whim to you seem strange,
Who every hour delight in change.

In them and you alike are seen
The sullen symptoms of the spleen;
The moment that your vapours rise,
We see them dropping from your eyes.

In evening fair you may behold
The clouds are fringed with borrow’d gold;
And this is many a lady’s case,
Who flaunts about in borrow’d lace.

Grave matrons are like clouds of snow,
Their words fall thick, and soft, and slow;
While brisk coquettes, like rattling hail,
Our ears on every side assail.

Clouds, when they intercept our sight,
Deprive us of celestial light:
So when my Chloe I pursue,
No heaven besides I have in view.

Thus, on comparison, you see,
In every instance they agree;
So like, so very much the same,
That one may go by t’other’s name.
Let me proclaim it then aloud,
That every woman is a cloud.

Katherine Meadowcroft recently sent us a link to her blog “Humble, All Too Humble” and her recent post “Head, heart and soul in the Clouds”.

It is an article exploring the appreciation of clouds in art and is beautifully written… ” Diaphanous clouds metaphorically nod to life’s permutations and impermanence. One need only beckon the natural world to remind us, it is here, right now, that we must pay attention, because in a flash it changes”.

Click here to read the full article.

Thanks to H Brown for sending us the link to SentIntoSpace.com. Here you will find everything you need to capture your own beautiful images of the thin blue line of the atmosphere and the blackness of space. To find out more please visit their website.

Thanks to Sherry Palmer for telling us about this item on the National Public Radio website. The video shows a rare total cloud inversion which took place in the Grand Canyon on Thursday, 11th December, filling the huge void with what looks like a rolling white fog. You can see more on the National Public Radio website

We wholeheartedly support the campaign by the Tottenham Civic Society to save 7 Bruce Grove, Tottenham, London, which is a Grade II Listed building in a state of severe dereliction and in danger of falling down. Once a fine Georgian townhouse, it was the home of Luke Howard, who, in 1802, proposed a system for classifying clouds. Howard came up with the names ‘Cumulus’, ‘Cirrus’ and ‘Stratus’ and his naming system is still in use today. 7 Bruce Grove is the only building in this London area to bear a blue plaque. This simply says:

Luke Howard (1772-1864) ‘Namer of Clouds’ lived and died here

Due to its severe state of repair, the building is on the English Heritage ‘At Risk Register’. Please add your name to this petition for the local council to force Redwing Estates Ltd, which owns the 7 Bruce Grove, to undertake urgent and essential works. We can’t allow this historic home of the man who did so much for the love of the sky to crumble to the ground.

Add your name to the petition

The blue plaque outside 7 Bruce Grove, Tottenham, London

7 Bruce Grove has seen better days
Photo: Matthew Badry (@mattbradby)

Thanks go to Cloud Appreciation Society members Laurence Green and Bernard L Reymond who both sent us the link to this amazing image that appeared on NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day. The picture was taken by Eric Nguyen in 2004 and shows a Tornado and Rainbow Over Kansas. Eric is a storm chaser and you can read more about how and when he captured his image here

Cloudsform is an ambient musician strongly inspired by clouds. He is working on a new album right now and his next song could be inspired by your photography of clouds.

All you have to do is to tag your photo with #cloudsform on Instagram. This photography would appear on his site as the inspiration.

Thank you to Mirka Biel for bringing this project to our attention.

The Royal Meteorological Society is putting together a special Young Persons edition of their Weather magazine, to be published next summer. The guest editor, 16 year old Daniel Brener from Berkhamsted, is now looking for articles and images to be submitted for the magazine. These should be written by individuals or small groups of people, between the ages of 7 and 21. Articles can be short (around 300 words) or up to 2000 words.

We welcome contributions on all aspects of weather, including climatology, oceanography, historical meteorology and related environmental matters. Submissions might cover;

o weather related fieldwork,
o cross curricula weather projects,
o local weather events,
o investigations into community memories of extreme weather,
o weather balloon launches,
o anything else!

The deadline for submitting articles or images is 5th December 2014.

They should be submitted to education@rmets.org

The image sent to 3AW Melbourne by listener Carol. Picture: 3AW/Twitter Source: Twitter

Our thanks to Society members Veronica Bryan, no. 24,855 and Kim Ter-Horst, no. 14,256, for drawing our attention the fallstreak hole cloud formation that hit the headlines in Australia after being spotted by residents of Wonthaggi, Victoria.

News.com.au reported on their website that Michael Efron, forecaster at the Australian Bureau of Meteorology, reassured locals that the sight was a natural weather phenomenon. Unfortunately, he incorrectly described the rainbow colours appearing in the cloud as iridescence. In fact, the optical phenomenon is a circumhorizon arc, which can appear as sunlight passes through hexagonal-plate shaped ice crystals a high cloud. See the article here.