You can't look around when you're looking up, so we've had a look around for you. If you have cloud news that you think we should include here, please email it to us at: news@cloudappreciationsociety.org.

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04/21/2008
Opportunity rocks on Mars

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

No, we are not talking about Little Green Men, although the observer scanning the skies does live on Mars.

Our fellow cloud lover is Opportunity, one of the two Mars Exploration Rovers which have been studying the history of water on that inhospitable planet since landing in 2004.

In March, Opportunity lifted its robot eyes skyward to video clouds drifting overhead, according to an update on The Planetary Society website. The clouds it captured passing over Victoria Crater look like cirrus clouds on Earth, feather-like formations composed mostly of ice crystals.

Thanks to Carole Boon for sifting through pages of scientific reports to bring us this gem.

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04/21/2008
China ready to blast clouds over Olympic stadium

China has had a bad press recently - and it is about to get worse.

First there was the Olympic torch fiasco; now it seems the Chinese hate clouds enough to blast them out of the sky.

News reaches us from a reliable source (Reuters) that China is preparing to fire rockets at any clouds threatening to rain on the Olympics opening ceremony at the roofless stadium in Bejing.

Crews surrounding the city will be on alert to fire rockets or cannons containing silver iodide at approaching clouds in the hope of making them rain before they reach the stadium, says the report. Three aircraft will also be on standby to drop catalysts to unleash rain from the clouds.

Our thanks to the appropriately-named Glenn Rainey (member 146) for spotting this story.

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04/17/2008
Puzzling attraction of cloud jigsaw

Too much time on your hands? Looking for something to amuse the kids?

Then why not try this cloud puzzle from NASA, the people who also brought you the first man on the moon.

It’s cool, slightly addictive and has the added benefit of being educational. Every time you unscramble the jigsaw, it tells you what kind of clouds they are.

Then you can either pick a new puzzle or scramble the picture into smaller pieces and do it all over again. Ah, hours of endless fun . . . .

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04/17/2008
Cloud cover theory that’s a hot topic

It seems that clouds may hold the key to what scientists call our planet’s supergreenhouse episodes.

Climate experts know it was much warmer during the Cretaceous and Eocene periods, roughly between 146 and 35 million years ago. Average temperatures in the tropics were above 100 degrees Fahrenheit and polar temperatures were in the 50-degree Fahrenheit range.

Previously, they worked on the theory that increases in gases like carbon dioxide caused the warming. Now they believe it was reduced cloud cover, which in turn changed the Earth’s albedo (the amount of sunlight reflected into space).

According to researchers, there may have been changes in the production of cloud condensation nuclei, the tiny particles around which water condenses to form rain drops and cloud droplets. This would have led to fewer and less bright clouds and increased the sun’s warming effect.

Click here to read more about the science behind the idea.

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03/28/2008
Cool plan for clouds to combat global warming

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

Scientists are working on an ingenious plan to restore cloud cover in semi-arid regions, like West Africa, by harvesting rainwater and using it to increase soil moisture.

Combined with selective tree-planting, it is hoped this will encourage clouds to form naturally, helping to both reflect direct heat from the sun and also carry heat from the earth and radiate it out to space.

There could be many other positive side-effects for the local population, including improved agriculture and forestry and reduced flooding.

Visit the Global Cooling Project website if you want to learn more.

If you are a graphic designer, you may be able to offer some practical help. The project is looking for someone to design a logo for visiting cards and letterheads, possibly including stratus and/or cumulonimbus clouds over land. Email Ray Taylor (ray [at] andy-taylor.org) for more information or use the contact form on his website (see above).

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03/13/2008
In-flight cloud movie that’s streets ahead of the rest

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

While it is not uncommon for convection currents to form such patterns, photos like this that clearly show the clouds rolled into strips are apparently rare. It was taken by a Japanese coast guard aircraft off the north-eastern coast of Hokkaido.

As an added treat, you can watch a video of the cloud streets shot through the aircraft window.

Our Japanese is a little rusty but we are reliably informed that the narration says the clouds floated just over the sea surface, stood 300 metres tall and stretched for more than 100 kilometers.

Thanks to Craig Butcher (member 9808) for telling us about it.

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03/10/2008
It’s life, Jim, but not as we know it

Life has been found in some unlikely places on this planet of ours, from permafrost in polar regions to black smoker vents on the ocean floor.

Now it seems there is startling evidence that clouds are also home to a range of tiny organisms.

It has been known for some time that bacteria, algae and fungi can be found in clouds and are often transported long distances. But recent research claims that some hardy bacteria actually live there, feeding on nutrients in cloud water. They grow, metabolise and reproduce, until falling back to earth when it rains.

This raises further fascinating questions: such as whether some microbes have evolved specifically to live in clouds; and whether they contribute to the formation of clouds as water droplets cling to them.

You can read more about this here. Our thanks to Dell Hollingsworth for spotting the New York Times article.

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02/21/2008
UFO or cloud? We haven’t the foggiest idea

The question facing morning commuters was: is this a photograph of a UFO, or just a car park on a foggy night?

Our members might be more inclined to believe the disc-shaped object, circled near the top right of the picture, is a lenticular cloud rather than a visitor from outer space.

Hab Rahman, who snapped it near his home in Portsmouth, is not so sure.

“I’ve never really believed in UFOs but this is a bit weird and freaky – I just cannot think what else it could be,” he told Metro, the London-based free newspaper.

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02/17/2008
Performance takes a look-see at clouds

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

The best way to find out is to watch Cloud Piece, a theatre work which declares a love and fascination with the sky.

Performer Nic Green says she will also need a camping stove (for heating), a brown fan (for blowing), her own bodily fluids (for moisture), rain water (also for moisture), potatoes (for beauty), a ten-year-old (for imagination) and a lighter (for emotional songs).

Cloud Piece aims to appreciate the difference between looking and seeing, between seeing and really seeing, and between surface seeing and seeing into.

You can see it every weekend at Battersea Arts Centre, London, from February 22- March 15.

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01/29/2008
Chilling display of London’s weather

Feeling overheated by global-warming worries? In a sweat about your carbon footprint?

Then go and chill out at Weather Permitting: London’s Changing Climate, one of two exhibitions in London museums featuring cloud content.

Find out about the capital’s weather - the storms, floods, freezes, heatwaves, fogs and smogs - and how Londoners have coped with the best (and worst) that the elements have thrown at them over the last 2000 years. The display is in the foyer of the Museum of London from February 15 until April 20.

Meanwhile, Out of the Ordinary: Spectacular Craft, is at the V & A now until February 17 and features Annie Cattrell, who has created sculptures of clouds from a particular day laser etched into blocks of glass. The clouds are positioned within the glass block in relation to their height in the atmosphere.

Her subjects are fleeting things, such as clouds or breath inside a human lung, and stem from her interest in anatomy and meteorology.

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01/20/2008
Cloud art deters graffiti taggers

Never underestimate the power of clouds.

A disused pub in Brighton was being targeted by graffiti taggers, so the council commissioned artist Stig Evans to come up with some designs for the building.

Police say it hasn’t been defaced since his images of white clouds and blue skies were placed on the windows four months ago.

“It’s unusual and quite calming,” said a police spokeswoman. “People seem to have a respect for the art of it.”

Read more about this story here.

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01/11/2008
Clouded in mystery

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

It was long, thin, shaped like an outstretched arm and appeared briefly in the house of Gyula Somlai (member 8164), an architect living in Budapest.

Gyula says he was taking pictures of his wife in her new dress with his digital camera and was amazed to discover the cloudy shape in the images when he uploaded them to his PC.

“I attest to the fact that no artificial manipulation of any kind has occurred to the photos,” he said. “I have unsuccessfully consulted experts in photography and even researchers of inexplicable phenomena.”

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01/11/2008
Dreamy sounds of clouds

Ever wondered what a journey through clouds might sound like?

A group of Italian musicians, Sparkle in Grey, have musing on that idea and the result is an album called Nefelodhis, which apparently means cloudiness in Greek.

“The album is a desperate but dreamy picture in sounds of the concept of clouds,” say the musicians, who describe themselves on their website as an experimental post-rock boy band. “It sounds like a trip through the wet lands made of vapour.”

You can make up your own mind by listening to selected tracks here.

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12/14/2007
Space probe helping to solve mystery of cloud high-fliers

New images of noctilucent clouds taken by a NASA spacecraft may help solve the mystery about why they form - and why they are changing.

Noctilucent (night shining) clouds are the highest on Earth and can be seen as thin bands in twilight skies about 50 miles up. But these latest pictures give a global view of them rotating round the Arctic, allowing scientists to measure them.

Data returned by the Aeronomy of Ice in the Mesosphere (AIM) satellite may explain why the clouds are getting brighter, are being seen more often and are appearing at lower latitudes.

One theory is that a build-up of greenhouse gases in the upper atmosphere may be responsible. The clouds, also known as Polar Mesospheric Clouds, appear to be extremely sensitive to temperature variation and may be acting as thermometers for climate change.

You can read more about this story here.

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12/10/2007
Ho ho ho - but reindeer lookalike is no joke

A seasonal cloud-lookalike has made the headlines in a New Zealand newspaper.

This picture of a cloud in the shape of a reindeer had readers of The Dominion Post wondering whether the photographer was having a laugh.

But Alan Blacklock, who took the shot in early December while sitting in the backyard of his home in Wellington, insisted it was genuine.

“I am sure some people will be a bit sceptical about this because of the time of year, but it is absolutely 100 per cent authentic,” said Mr Blacklock, who photographs clouds for the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research.

Our thanks to Jill Towers from Australia (member 4193), who sent us a cutting of the news story.

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12/10/2007
Beach bar that mirrors the sky

Anderby Creek, a beach on the Lincolnshire coast, will soon have its own official cloudspotting area, endorsed by the society.

Artist Michael Trainor is redesigning a disused shelter at the popular holiday destination into a ‘cloud bar’.

Visitors will be able to gaze at cloud formations by reclining in specially designed seats and treat themselves to unusual views by turning a mini-forest of parabolic mirrors which will bring the sky down to human level. There will be cloud menus with descriptions and examples of clouds to help them identify what they see.

Society founder Gavin Pretor-Pinney has agreed to make it an official cloudspotting area and the special CAS logo pictured here will be incorporated into the design.

It is hoped the Anderby Creek Cloud Bar will be finished by March 2008.

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11/25/2007
Mostly Martha

Society founder Gavin Pretor-Pinney is flying to New York to make a live guest appearance on the hugely popular Martha Stewart Show next Tuesday (November 27).

He will be giving Martha Stewart membership to the society and talking about his books, including the US edition of the cloud lookalikes book, which is called Hot Pink Flying Saucers and Other Clouds.

Media mogul Stewart is the doyenne of American homemaking and her lifestyle TV show, watched by millions, is taped live and then airs at various times throughout the day across
the States and in other countries. It is also broadcast nightly at 8pm on digital
cable network Fine Living.

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11/19/2007
Sunset shot has got it covered

A few weeks ago, we drew your attention to the Weather Watcher’s 3-Year Log Book, published by the Royal Meteorological Society.

We thought it might interest you because it is crammed with fascinating facts about the weather, including information on how to identify different cloud types.

Frank Le Blancq (member 7914) has written to tell us that the RMS used one of his cloud photographs on the front cover (third from the top). It is a glorious sunset over Rocco Tower in St. Ouen’s Bay, Jersey, taken in mid-June. The photo is also in the 2008 Royal Meteorological Society calendar.

Frank, a professional meteorologist, said: “My job means I spend quite a bit of time looking at clouds and I take cloud photos for fun. If anyone publishes them, I regard that as a bonus.”

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11/15/2007
Diary of a cloudspotter

Most of us look up and marvel at clouds at least once a day - that is what makes us cloudspotters.

But chances are very few of us bother to keep a daily diary of what we have seen, unless we happen to be professional meteorologists.

Margaret Nelson (member 2812) is a keen amateur and records what she has seen near her Suffolk home in her online cloud journal. Her daily updates usually inlcude photographs, like the one shown here.

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11/13/2007
Extremely impressive weather stories

A striking picture taken by our photo gallery editor Ian Loxley features in a new book about extreme weather.

Storm Force, by TV weathermen Michael Fish, Ian McCaskill and Paul Hudson, was published last month to mark the twentieth anniversary of the October 1987 hurricane, which flattened much of south-eastern England.

It uses pictures and news reports from national and regional archives to recall the most amazing episodes of weather that have left trails of death and destruction across the UK.

The book includes Ian’s photograph of lightning, which has also featured on the front cover of the International Journal of Meteorology.

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11/10/2007
Cloudspotting talk at Bridport Lit Fest

Society founder Gavin Pretor-Pinney will be giving a talk on cloudspotting on Monday, November 12 as part of the Bridport Literary Festival.

If you live in or near Dorset, then for the Eype Centre for the Arts at St Peter’s Church, where you will be able to hear Gavin extol the virtues of cloudspotting in person.

His illustrated talk starts at 2.30pm and you can download a copy of the festival brochure here.

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11/10/2007
Putting clouds in perspective

If you click on the cloud photograph to the right and think perhaps it is time you wore glasses, you are right.

But your eyesight is probably fine - it is the picture that is playing tricks. It is an anaglyph image, which creates a stereoscopic 3D effect when viewed with two-colour glasses, usually cyan and red. Anaglyph images are made up of two colour layers, superimposed, but offset with respect to each other to produce a depth effect.

This example is part of a series of cloud pictures taken by Ben Orona. He says the two photographs which make up each 3D image were taken hundreds of feet apart, which helps give them their depth.

However, you will need a pair of anaglyph cyan-red glasses to see the 3D effect. You can buy them online - here, for example - but all the sites we found sold them in packs of five or ten. You may be able to buy them singly on eBay.

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11/08/2007
Lens cap for mountain photographs

Amateur photographer Darlisa Black has written to tell us about a beautiful series of pictures she took of lenticular clouds near Mount Adams in the Pacific Northwest of the USA.

She was walking in the hills near her home in Washington State when she spotted the formation and spent nearly two hours capturing its changing shapes in the fading light.

“As with many volcanoes, certain weather conditions bring about lenticular
formations, and all my life I have witnessed many ‘caps’ on the nearby Mt.
Adams and Mt. Hood in Oregon.

“On November 6, I was fortunate to be up in the hills on my day off,
taking photos and enjoying the day. I could see a small lenticular formation near the mountain, so I decided to drive up 10 miles above Trout Lake, Washington, to a viewpoint I knew of with a great view of Mt. Adams.

‘I was so excited, and hiked along the edge of the cliff edged road for a mile, taking well over a hundred photos over the next hour and a half. Every time I started to quit and get in the truck, the colors and form would change again becoming even more amazing! I finally quit when all color was gone and it was getting dark.

“Every few minutes, the formation would change significantly. I loved it right at the end when it seemed the layers were lifting up away from the lowest layer, until there was a complete separation between the bottom two layers.”

The result is an absolutely stunning slideshow, which you can see here.

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11/02/2007
Heavenly thoughts

Society founder Gavin Pretor-Pinney features in a new film about the sky by one of our members, Esther Johnson.

Celestial takes the form of an experimental portrait, exploring the poetry of the sky, which is seen as a space of fascination and contemplation.

It features interviews with weather experts, scientists and cloud
lovers, focusing on their perceptions and thoughts about the sky. In the film, Gavin describes looking at clouds as a form of meteorological meditation.

Snippets of dialogue from the interviews are spliced with visuals, including time-lapse footage of the sky, cloud formations, aerial views and people cloudspotting. The film also uses sounds from weather monitoring equipment and noises created from the weather itself.

Celestial premiered a few weeks ago at the Urban Screens Conference in Manchester but there are a few more screenings coming up which members might like to try and attend: Urban Screens Conference Manchester, 02/11/07;
Aurora, Norwich, 10/11/07; 21st Leeds International Film Festival, 17-24/11/07; Site Gallery Sheffield, 03/08.

You can find out more about Celestial on Esther’s website, www.blanchepictures.com, and watch an extract of the film here: www.biggerpictureuk.net

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10/31/2007
A real debate about Dutch cloud painting

Franz Ossing (member 9648) has drawn our attention to a lively debate in the art history world about whether the Dutch 17th-century masters painted realistic clouds.

There is no doubt the landscape artists of the Dutch “Golden Age”, like Jacob van Ruisdael, painted clouds beautifully. The question is whether the clouds in their paintings were meteorologically accurate.

Some art historians claim to be able to find the complete World Meteorological Organisation cloud atlas reproduced in landscapes from that period. Others argue that cloud forms were distorted to fit compositions and certain types of clouds that are typical for Holland did not appear in the paintings.

Read more about this here.

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10/29/2007
Just for the record

Anthea Howard (member 9169) is Membership Secretary of the Royal Meteorological Society and has sent us a copy of their Weather Watcher’s 3-Year Log Book.

Cloudspotters have more than a passing interest in the weather, so you may want to add this handsome book to your collection.

It is crammed with fascinating facts, including information on how to identify different cloud types and what weather they portend.

It gives explanations of weather forecasts and how to understand them and features stunning images of the weather in all its power and glory. You can even learn how to make simple weather measuring apparatus.

You can find out more and order a copy on the RMS website.

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10/29/2007
Striking image of cloud power

We get sent a lot of pictures of fierce clouds but Bruce Sharp (member 3979) has emailed us an impressive shot of the aftermath of a storm in Australia.

This is what was left of an ironbark eucalyptus, one of the hardest of timbers, after it was hit by lightning. Fence post-sized chunks were hurled up to 50 yards and the stump was lifted out of the ground.

The picture was taken by Col Coulson near Kingaroy in central Queensland.

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10/28/2007
Making room for clouds

Have you ever wished you could watch clouds from the comfort of your own home, without even having to look out of the window?

DVDs might be the answer, but American artist Georgie Friedman has come up with an intriguing, all-round experience.

Her Cloud Room is a four-channel, high-definition video installation with cloth walls, each with a cloud video on a loop. Find out more about it here.

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10/28/2007
Fantastic clouds

Scottish writer David Cunningham has written to tell us about his fantasy novel set on a planet divided by a permanent layer of clouds.

CloudWorld, an old-fashioned adventure story about a son’s search for his missing father, is aimed at young adult readers but might appeal to fans of Dune, with its citadels above the layer, ruling families, weird flying machines and fear of the world below.

You can find out more about it here: www.cloudworldthenovel.com

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10/26/2007
Sky’s the limit when playing with shapes

Seeing shapes in the sky and letting your imagination run riot is the fun side of cloudspotting.

Our new book of cloud-lookalikes, A Pig with Six Legs and other Clouds, is proof that our members are not only extremely handy with cameras but also enjoy being playful.

So we think you might get a few laughs from SKYplay, a series of visual jokes using the sky and clouds as a backdrop.

Our thanks to Dave Hall for sending us the link.