Comment by circadian

7 hours ago

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...

7 comments

circadian

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srean  7 hours ago

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.

orangewindies  2 hours ago

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.

Brendinooo  3 hours ago

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?

  • circadian  1 hour ago

    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!