The society for people who love the sky

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Today's Cloud-a-Day

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Cloud of the Month

August 2025

Anne Ducret saw this strange hole in a layer of Altocumulus clouds she spotted over Lot, Occitanie, France. We explain what caused it in Cloud of the Month for August...

Download Our Free CloudSpotter App

Discover the wonders of clouds with our CloudSpotter app.

Discover the amazing world of clouds with your pocket guide to the wonders of the sky and have your spottings verified as you build a collection of clouds.

Our CloudSpotter app will teach you how to spot 58 different cloud formations and optical effects, from the common ones like Cumulus clouds and rainbows to rare ones like the fleeting fluctus cloud or the hard to spot circumzenithal arc. Learn what makes each formation special with expert text from the Cloud Appreciation Society and stunning reference photographs by our app users around the world.

Build up your own Collection of spottings and use our innovative tools to find out what type of clouds or optical effects you’ve spotted. See New Spottings by other users around the world and say (with our help) if you think they got the clouds right. CloudSpotter can even analyse your image and say what cloud types it thinks you’ve spotted. Becoming an expert cloudspotter has never been easier or more fun!

Friday September 12th

is Cloud Appreciation Day!

Once a year, on Cloud Appreciation Day, people from around the world pause to look up. They capture their sky and describe how it makes them feel — creating a shared, emotional snapshot of our planet’s atmosphere.

These individual moments are brought together in the Memory Cloud Atlas, a global archive of sky photos and feelings — a lasting record of people around the world pausing to reflect on the atmosphere we all share.

In 2025, Cloud Appreciation Day takes place on Friday, September 12th. The Memory Cloud Atlas opens for contributions on this day only — for 24 hours, anyone anywhere can contribute their sky and say how it made them feel.

Cloudspotting for Beginners

A collaboration with award-winning illustrator William Grill, Cloudspotting for Beginners is a stunning introduction to clouds and the sky. We are very proud of this beautiful hardback book, which has been shortlisted for the prestigious  Wainwright Prize (Children’s Non-fiction) for nature writing. Charming, uplifting, and easy to understand for all ages, Cloudspotting for Beginners will inspire anyone curious about clouds to look up at the sky with a new understanding and appreciation.

Recent Clouds Spotted

New from our Members

Altocumulus floccus creating layers of reflection by way of Round Lake, Idaho, US
Cloud Poetry
Cloud watcher Annette Birdsall, heard about the Cloud ...
A sunrise with anti-crepuscular rays over Longmont, Colorado, US.
Cloud Music
Theme from Harry's Game by Clannad was suggested ...
Cloud Videos
Calvin Grover sent us a compilation of his ...
Cloud Art
Claire Bywater, Member 55,303, is a painter who ...

A Survival Kit for the Imagination

Our downloadable lesson plans and resources for schools and homeschools teaching about the sky.

News

A Head in the Clouds Exhibition

Leah Margosis, Member 44,374, recently contacted about an exhibition at the Storage Art Gallery in New York featuring artist, Jacqueline Gourevitch.  The exhibition is called “A Head in the Clouds” and, while it is closing on August 1 2025, you can still view it online.Jacqueline Gourevitch was born in 1933 and the exhibition includes her […]

Noctilucent Clouds: A Citizen Science Project

Noctilucent cloud season is upon us in the Northern Hemisphere, and NASA has a citizen science project for noctilucent cloudspotters to get stuck into. Forming in summer months at altitudes of around 50 miles (80.5 km), noctilucent clouds are Earth’s highest clouds. They are only visible during twilight hours, when the rest of the sky […]

Celebrating 250 Years of J.M.W. Turner

Timothy J Schmidt, Member 51,199 came across an article by journalist, Dan Mobbs, on the Invaluable.com blog celebrating 250 years of J.M.W Turner (1775-1851).  Mobbs’ tells us “as The Painter of Light, Turner’s work evolved from the precise topographical tradition of the 18th century towards something entirely new and abstract. His seascapes churned with drama […]