Guessing Clouds

Nemo, 2015.

Hamlet: Do you see yonder cloud that’s almost in shape of a camel?
Lord Polonius: By th’ mass, and ‘tis, like a camel, indeed.
Hamlet: Methinks it is like a weasel.
Lord Polonius: It is back’d like a weasel.
Hamlet: Or like a whale.
Lord Polonius: Very like a whale.”
William Shakespeare, Hamlet, Act III, Scene ii

Even though Hamlet might have been testing his chief counselor there and things did not end well, I just love guessing clouds! Do you remember spending afternoons lying in the grass with friends as a child, looking at the sky, trying to outdo one another in what you could see there? Telling stories about heroes, monsters, and adventures? What happy, carefree days those were!

And what do you see in the picture above? I see little clownfish Nemo playing in the ocean. Looks like he is having fun!

Types of Clouds

White Blue Grey (5), 2015.

“I pointed out the different types of clouds and what they told of the weather to come. She showed me the shapes they held: a rose, a harp, a waterfall.”
Patrick Rothfuss, The Name of the Wind, 2007, Chapter 33

Nephology, the science of clouds, categorizes different types of clouds depending on their distance from the Earth and on their shapes. For high-level clouds the prefix cirro- is used, with alto- used for mid-level clouds. Low-level and mixed-level clouds usually have no prefix. Sheets of clouds are called stratus clouds, stratus being Latin for “stretched and spread out”. Puffy clouds are called cumulus clouds, cumulus being Latin for “heap or pile”. By combining altitude and shape, this system provides categories and names for all the wonderful cloud phenomena in the sky. Based on this system, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) publishes its International Cloud Atlas. And something named “stratocumulus stratiformis” just has to be beautiful, right?