Appreciating Clouds With the Cloud Appreciation Society

Do you like to appreciate clouds? Big clouds, round clouds, clouds that look like Venetian composer Benedetto Marcello? If you do, you’d probably appreciate the Cloud Appreciation Society. If not, you’re missing out. There’s a whole world to explored by turning your eye sockets skywards and searching the clear blue for those wondrously white non-celestial rain-makers, clouds.

OK, so if you made it through the first paragraph you’re probably wondering by now what we’re on about? What exactly is a cloud appreciation society and are the frequenters of such places one cumulus cloud short of storm? The answer to the first question is directly below the heading marked Cloud Appreciation Society. The answer to the second part is of course not, cumulus clouds aren’t storm clouds, stupid.

The Cloud Appreciation Society

The first thing to make clear right off the bat is that there isn’t just one Cloud Appreciation Society out there, there are far more than seem justifiable, which is wonderful and all are dedicated to the letting the world know just how great clouds are. After all, there are all sorts of sites dedicated to the weird, wonderful and perversely deranged, so why not clouds? They are beautiful and as Baudelaire once wrote :

“I love the clouds… the clouds that pass…
up there… up there… the wonderful clouds!”

Or as Percy Shelley more eloquently put it in his poem the Cloud :

“I am the daughter of Earth and Water,
And the nursling of the Sky;
I pass through the pores of the ocean and shores;
I change, but I cannot die.”

You see, clouds are great and are woefully unappreciated. Not like the most over-rated of celestial bodies those luminous ghosts the stars. Sure stars can look all pretty but can they take the vague shape of a celebrity or religious icon? No, of course not. Plus a lot of them are already dead and all we see is the faintest flicker of life fired across the vastness of space and time lighting our wayward journey home.

Well, maybe stars are great. Just don’t forget about the clouds. They wouldn’t forget about you.

For those who do wish to do some cloud spotting, it’s really easy. All you need is a sky and a working set of eyes. Next you’ll need to know some things about the things you are spotting. So here’s a quick guide to what you can spy with your eye.

Stratus Clouds – These low-lying clouds might well be described as “angry” if we were foolish enough to assume clouds had emotions. Grey and generally covering the entire sky they bring with them some light rain or drizzle.

Cumulus Clouds – These moody little buggers can be associated with either good or bad weather but generally puffy white or light grey. Sort of like the clouds at the start of the Simpsons, except for real.

Cirrus Clouds – These are the most common high level clouds and bring with them sunshine. Uniformly white and wispy they’re made up of ice and are always a welcome sight in our sky-tops.

Super extra bonus cloud

The Lenticular Cloud – For the true cloud appreciators out there we give you the lenticular cloud. This wonderful little oddity forms on the downwind of mountains and looks all kinds of peculiar. As you might have guessed from the name, they are sort of lens-shaped and look a little like flying saucers.

So there you have it. Stars are OK, we’ve covered that but nothing can be beat a cloud, particularly as it has no corporeal form.