Sadly the website is offline, but if you like a hard copy cloud book I can heartily recommend the following. During my spell in Antarctica, I had to act as a meteorological observer (clouds are still manually encoded into METOBS that are entered in by WMO stations). This required learning the 10 types and being able to characterise the full picture of the sky.
It made me a total cloud addict, and spurred a far deeper interest in the role of the atmosphere in environmental science which has persisted ever since.
I heartily recommend looking up at the sky, dividing into oktas (eighths) and trying to classify how much of the low, medium and high clouds there are. If you do it regularly enough, the changes begin to astound. Getting your kids to do it too is also wonderful, because it's always there as an activity... :)
It is amazing how much of 'it' is going on in the skies once you start noticing.
There was a thread this winter on solstices, with commenters expressing wonder at how could humans figure those out. If you notice sunrises/sunsets day after day over the years, it is inescapable. It's sad that we the modern humans spend so much time hunkered below opaque ceilings.
But I will say this, having interest in cloud-spotting and amateur astronomy is very very rewarding. Clouds stop being an impediment to you and grow into a phenomena worth appreciating on their own terms.
During my time in Antarctica we had a (Turbo Pascal, I think) program on the met computer that prompted for weather conditions and sent it off to the satellite terminal. The UI was not great, it was surprisingly easy to report sandstorms.
I wouldn't say conclusively, but certainly they're an indicator for things like what you mention. Nimbostratus are typically associated with rain, cumulonimbus for thunderstorms: both of these are indicators for the atmospheric conditions and thermal upwellings that will cause sudden precipitation and / or electrostatic discharge.
We also did air observations for pilots. If you saw certain types of cumulus near peaks, called lenticulars, pilots wouldn't go near them because they're caused by pretty dangerous winds dynamics.
It's all connected, which is why it gets so fascinating. Sadly, I never pursued meteorology beyond hobbyist, but I'd love to!
What I find fascinating objects of beauty are the ways different clouds modify light or are illuminated by different kinds of light, from the belt of Venus to different kinds of halos to crepuscular and anti solar rays.
I remember that one time where anti-solar rays painted pole to pole "longitudes" on the hemispherical dome of the sky. It's too bad we don't have photographic memory, or at least I don't.
It is such a wonderful world if one has the luxury of time and space and the foresight to remove oneself from the cover of a ceiling once in a while.
I'm having trouble understanding the Belt of Venus one. Isn't purple expected to be there per ROYGBIV? Also the second image looks orange to me, not purple.
> It is a pinkish glow that surrounds the observer
This also makes no sense to me, or else maybe observer is jargon? But there's no hyperlink... The photographer certainly doesn't seem to be surrounded by a pinkish glow.
Is it just a name for the purple part of the spectrum?
I do not understand the Physics of the phenomenon very well, but I would expect the high frequency wavelengths (for example, purple) to be scattered away.
"Surround" does not describe the phenomenon of Belt of Venus adequately. Think of it like a horizontal band wrapped around the dome of the sky, slightly above the horizon, and prominent towards the West, fading towards the East.
I'm something of a cloud-enjoyer. If you're interested in learning more about clouds I'd recommend the international cloud atlas website.
https://cloudatlas.wmo.int/en/home.html
Cumulus are the best clouds. They make so many shapes and things. I could see them as space ships floating by or big heads, or dragons and what not as a child.
When I moved from the Bay Area to Austin, the first thing I realized: I missed seeing Cumulus clouds, which I saw a lot growing up in the midwest. Bay Area either has blue skies or Cirrus clouds, but never did see Cumulus clouds there.
Sorry but I can't make sense of this comment. If we assume "Bay Area either has blue skies or Cirrus clouds, but never did see Cumulus clouds there" is true, then the first sentence would make more sense if you had moved from Austin (which presumably has cumulus clouds) to the Bay Area (which doesn't, per your final sentence).
I also wasn't sure what to make of "in the midwest". Not being from the US, I thought that that would be referring to Austin -- but when I asked Gemini, it confidently told me that Austin is not in the Midwest. I know the Bay Area is not in the Midwest, so... Are you referring to a third place here?
Not OP, but: Moving back to Austin, the overwhelming number of cumulus clouds in the sky reminded him how much he enjoyed their marshmallowy appearance. They don't exist in the Bay, hence his first sentence being true.
Presumably he spent his youth in the Midwest. Austin is a pretty transient city so OP likely moved there.
Funny enough I have felt similar to OP about Texas skies compared to the East Coast. The plains landscape and the heat (common to the Midwest) seems to create a cloud overlay so very different from what you find on the coasts. Me, I'll keep my stratocumulus and cirrocumulus beautiful sunsets of the South Eastern United States anyday!
Yep that’s right. First sentence was poorly worded, but I was trying to figure out why moving to Austin made me feel nostalgia, turns out it was the Cumulus clouds. Both Austin and Illinois have them, but the Bay does not.
They have forums where people post neat cloud photos and if you sign up for membership they will send you an identification chart plus a journal for keeping track of the types you have seen.
Makes for a nice gift for that person you know who always goes "oh look at that cloud!" :)
Lol, i expected a comparison between the major cloud providers but had a hard time believing there would be ten of them.. Anyway, I should take a day of to look at some real clouds.
Sadly the website is offline, but if you like a hard copy cloud book I can heartily recommend the following. During my spell in Antarctica, I had to act as a meteorological observer (clouds are still manually encoded into METOBS that are entered in by WMO stations). This required learning the 10 types and being able to characterise the full picture of the sky.
It made me a total cloud addict, and spurred a far deeper interest in the role of the atmosphere in environmental science which has persisted ever since.
I heartily recommend looking up at the sky, dividing into oktas (eighths) and trying to classify how much of the low, medium and high clouds there are. If you do it regularly enough, the changes begin to astound. Getting your kids to do it too is also wonderful, because it's always there as an activity... :)
Really hoping this site comes online again soon!
https://www.worldofbooks.com/en-gb/products/met-office-cloud...
It is amazing how much of 'it' is going on in the skies once you start noticing.
There was a thread this winter on solstices, with commenters expressing wonder at how could humans figure those out. If you notice sunrises/sunsets day after day over the years, it is inescapable. It's sad that we the modern humans spend so much time hunkered below opaque ceilings.
But I will say this, having interest in cloud-spotting and amateur astronomy is very very rewarding. Clouds stop being an impediment to you and grow into a phenomena worth appreciating on their own terms.
Hear hear :)
During my time in Antarctica we had a (Turbo Pascal, I think) program on the met computer that prompted for weather conditions and sent it off to the satellite terminal. The UI was not great, it was surprisingly easy to report sandstorms.
Gotta love 600 mile long roll clouds ...
* https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f0/MorningG...
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morning_Glory_cloud
Are you able to know and/or predict things about the weather by knowing the different clouds?
Like cumulonimbus = thunderstorm, stratus = maybe rain, sure. But what about the others?
I wouldn't say conclusively, but certainly they're an indicator for things like what you mention. Nimbostratus are typically associated with rain, cumulonimbus for thunderstorms: both of these are indicators for the atmospheric conditions and thermal upwellings that will cause sudden precipitation and / or electrostatic discharge.
We also did air observations for pilots. If you saw certain types of cumulus near peaks, called lenticulars, pilots wouldn't go near them because they're caused by pretty dangerous winds dynamics.
It's all connected, which is why it gets so fascinating. Sadly, I never pursued meteorology beyond hobbyist, but I'd love to!
Not offline for me
What I find fascinating objects of beauty are the ways different clouds modify light or are illuminated by different kinds of light, from the belt of Venus to different kinds of halos to crepuscular and anti solar rays.
I remember that one time where anti-solar rays painted pole to pole "longitudes" on the hemispherical dome of the sky. It's too bad we don't have photographic memory, or at least I don't.
It is such a wonderful world if one has the luxury of time and space and the foresight to remove oneself from the cover of a ceiling once in a while.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belt_of_Venus
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crepuscular_rays#Gallery
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anticrepuscular_rays#/media/Fi...
I'm having trouble understanding the Belt of Venus one. Isn't purple expected to be there per ROYGBIV? Also the second image looks orange to me, not purple.
> It is a pinkish glow that surrounds the observer
This also makes no sense to me, or else maybe observer is jargon? But there's no hyperlink... The photographer certainly doesn't seem to be surrounded by a pinkish glow.
Is it just a name for the purple part of the spectrum?
> Isn't purple expected to be there per ROYGBIV
I do not understand the Physics of the phenomenon very well, but I would expect the high frequency wavelengths (for example, purple) to be scattered away.
"Surround" does not describe the phenomenon of Belt of Venus adequately. Think of it like a horizontal band wrapped around the dome of the sky, slightly above the horizon, and prominent towards the West, fading towards the East.
I'm something of a cloud-enjoyer. If you're interested in learning more about clouds I'd recommend the international cloud atlas website. https://cloudatlas.wmo.int/en/home.html
Personal top three clouds:
- Nacreous clouds
- Altocumulus lenticularis
- Cirrus homogenitus (what a name)
I'm something of a cloud enjoyer myself. See also https://cloudappreciationsociety.org/
I have visited this here and there for the past 20+ years.
https://www.cloudman.com
…and now I've learned something new today:
https://cloudatlas.wmo.int/en/fog-bow.html
Heh, based on the title, I thought this would be "10 Basic Clouds" for AWS, Azure, GCP, etc. in some sort of GoF "Design Patterns" lexicon.
Thought so too and I think it's a sign I need a break.
Cumulus are the best clouds. They make so many shapes and things. I could see them as space ships floating by or big heads, or dragons and what not as a child.
Ironically the site is now giving a "The website encountered an unexpected error. Try again later." Do I blame the cloud?
Definitely.
When I moved from the Bay Area to Austin, the first thing I realized: I missed seeing Cumulus clouds, which I saw a lot growing up in the midwest. Bay Area either has blue skies or Cirrus clouds, but never did see Cumulus clouds there.
Interestingly enough, there were a lot of cumulus clouds in the Bay Area this week as part of a rare late-season storm system. https://x.com/NWSBayArea/status/2060155061796299251
Sorry but I can't make sense of this comment. If we assume "Bay Area either has blue skies or Cirrus clouds, but never did see Cumulus clouds there" is true, then the first sentence would make more sense if you had moved from Austin (which presumably has cumulus clouds) to the Bay Area (which doesn't, per your final sentence).
I also wasn't sure what to make of "in the midwest". Not being from the US, I thought that that would be referring to Austin -- but when I asked Gemini, it confidently told me that Austin is not in the Midwest. I know the Bay Area is not in the Midwest, so... Are you referring to a third place here?
Not OP, but: Moving back to Austin, the overwhelming number of cumulus clouds in the sky reminded him how much he enjoyed their marshmallowy appearance. They don't exist in the Bay, hence his first sentence being true.
Presumably he spent his youth in the Midwest. Austin is a pretty transient city so OP likely moved there.
Funny enough I have felt similar to OP about Texas skies compared to the East Coast. The plains landscape and the heat (common to the Midwest) seems to create a cloud overlay so very different from what you find on the coasts. Me, I'll keep my stratocumulus and cirrocumulus beautiful sunsets of the South Eastern United States anyday!
Yep that’s right. First sentence was poorly worded, but I was trying to figure out why moving to Austin made me feel nostalgia, turns out it was the Cumulus clouds. Both Austin and Illinois have them, but the Bay does not.
when I clicked on this. I was hoping to see cloud providers. but it was a pleasant surprise
If you enjoy this you might like https://cloudappreciationsociety.org/
They have forums where people post neat cloud photos and if you sign up for membership they will send you an identification chart plus a journal for keeping track of the types you have seen.
Makes for a nice gift for that person you know who always goes "oh look at that cloud!" :)
finally something relaxing. nothing about AI or a reminder for myself to start another project with some new fancy method, no politics.
Thank you
And you can look outside to see your local version of it. And, it updates frequently!
Ironic!
And don't worry, each type of cloud is already owned and trademarked years ago, you're not missing out on altocumulus.co.uk or whatever
'Look at that cloud, dad! It's a bean with legs!'
'No son, that's a Cumulus cloud. Detached, dense, with sharp outlines.'
Lol, i expected a comparison between the major cloud providers but had a hard time believing there would be ten of them.. Anyway, I should take a day of to look at some real clouds.
Beware the Cumulonimbus.
Do kids still get taught this in school? I got taught a few in the day. Cirrus, Cumulus, Stratus, Cumulonimbus. Wispy, cottonball, blanket, storm.
noaa got hug of death?
Disappointed to see no mention of AWS, Azure, or GCP.
Can these clouds be predicted from physics?
LMGTFY
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cloud_physics
Cloud formation is probably interesting example of spontaneous symmetry breaking, but that doesn’t seem to be much studied.
In opus 4.8 they can
genuinely funny - thanks
They can be predicted from a small device you can buy at a smoke shop
Damn my IT brain thought of AWS , Azure and what not , I should go touch grass
yup. even sonnet 4.6 on low got it right