The Cloudspotter's Guide

Humorous introduction to each of the different characters of the cloud family, by their staunchest champion. Gavin Pretor-Pinney is the chairman and founder of The Cloud Appreciation Society, and his mission is to open our eyes to their underrated beauty and poetry. The Cloudspotter's Guide, the inaugural publication of The Cloud Appreciation Society, is a call to arms against all forms of `blue-sky thinking' - after all, `Life would be dull if we had to look up at cloudless monotony day after day.' It points out which clouds are the harbingers of fine weather, and which of unsettled. It tells of the clouds that predict earthquakes, and of the rare Morning Glory cloud in Australia that glider pilots surf like a wave. It also settles such pressing questions as, which variety of mackerel is it that lends its name to the `mackerel sky' of Cirrocumulus stratiformis undulatus? And, were the stormy Cumulonimbus thundercloud and the drizzly Nimbostratus to meet in a boxing ring, who would win? Looking up will never be the same again.