Cloudy with a chance of joy Gavin PretorPinney

Thanks

even Isis how much people moan about

them they get bad rap if you think about

it the English language has written into

it negative associations towards the

clouds someone who’s down or depressed

they’re under a cloud and when there’s

bad news in store there’s a cloud on the

horizon I saw an article the other day

there was about problems with computer

processing over the internet a cloud

over the cloud was a headline it seems

like they’re everyone’s default doom and

gloom metaphor but I think they’re

beautiful don’t you it’s just that their

beauty is missed because they’re so

omnipresent so I don’t know commonplace

that people don’t notice them they don’t

notice the beauty but they don’t even

notice the clouds unless they get in the

way of the Sun and so people think of

clouds as the things that get in the way

they think of them as the annoying

frustrating obstructions and then they

rush off and do some blue sky thinking

but most people when you stop to ask

them will admit to harboring a strange

sort of fondness for clouds it’s like a

nostalgic fondness and they make them

think of their youth you here can’t

remember

thinking while looking and finding

shapes in the clouds when they were kids

you know when you were masters of

daydreaming Aristophanes the ancient

Greek playwright he described the clouds

as the patron goddesses of idle fellows

during a half thousand years ago and you

can see what he means it’s just that

these days US adults seem reluctant to

allow ourselves the indulgence of joy

allowing our imaginations to drift along

in the breeze and I think that’s a pity

I think we should perhaps do a bit more

of it I think we should be a bit more

willing perhaps to look at the beautiful

sight of the sunlight bursting out from

behind the clouds and go wait a minute

there’s two cats dancing the salsa for

seeing the beak for seeing the the big

white puffy one up there over the

shopping center looks like the

abominable snowman going to rob a bank

they’re like nature’s version of those

ink blot images you know that strengths

used to show their patients in the 60s

and I think if you consider the shapes

you see in the clouds we’ll save money

on psychoanalysis bones let’s say you’re

in love alright then you look up and

what do you see right or maybe the

opposite you’ve just been dumped by your

partner and and everywhere you look it’s

kissing couples perhaps you’re having a

moment of existential angst new you’re

thinking about your own mortality and

they’re on the horizon it’s the Grim

Reaper

or maybe you see a topless sunbathers

what would that mean well would that

mean I have no idea but one thing I do

know is this the bad press that clowns

get is totally unfair I think we should

stand up for them which is why a few

years ago I started the cloud

appreciation society tens of thousands

of members now in almost 100 countries

around the world and all these

photographs that the center that I’m

sharing they were sent in by members and

the Society exists to remind people of

this clouds are not something to moan

about far from it they are in fact the

most diverse evocative poetic aspect of

nature I think if you live with your

head in the clouds every now and then it

helps you keep your feet on the ground

and I want to show you why with the help

of some of my favorite types of cloud

let’s start with this one

it’s the cirrus cloud named after the

Latin for a lock of hair it’s composed

entirely of ice crystals cascading from

the upper reaches of the troposphere and

as these ice crystals fall they pass

through different layers with different

winds and they speed up and slow down

giving the cloud these brushstroke

appearances these brushstroke forms

known as full streaks and these winds up

there can be very very fierce it can be

200 miles now 300 miles an hour these

clouds are bombing along but from all

the way down here they appear to me

moving gracefully slowly like most

clouds and so to tune in to the clouds

as to slow down to calm down it’s like a

bit of everyday meditation those are

common clouds

what about rarer ones like the

lenticularis the ufo-shaped lenticularis

guard these clouds form in the region of

mountains when the wind passes rises to

pass over the mountain it can take on a

wave-like path in the lee of the peak

with these crowds hovering at the crest

of these invisible standing waves of air

these flying saucer-like forms and some

of the early black and white UFO photos

are in fact then ticular escape

it’s true little rarer are the full

streak holes right this is when a layer

is made of a very very cold water

droplets and in one region they start to

freeze and this freezing sets off a

chain reaction which spreads outwards

with the ice crystals cascading I’m

falling down below even the appearance

of jellyfish tendrils down below rare is

still the kelvin-helmholtz cloud not a

very snappy name needs a rebrand the

this looks like a series of breaking

waves and it’s caused by shearing winds

that wind above the cloud layer and

below the cloud layer differ

significantly and in the middle in

between you get this undulating of the

air and if the difference in those

speeds is just right the tops of the

undulations curl over in these beautiful

breaking wave-like vortices all right

those are rarer clouds than the Cirrus

but they’re not that rare if you look up

and you pay attention to the sky you’ll

see them sooner or later maybe not quite

as dramatic as these but you’ll see them

and you’ll see them around where you

live

clouds are the most egalitarian of

nature’s displays because we all have a

good fantastic view of the sky these

clouds these rare are clouds remind us

that the exotic can be found in the

everyday nothing’s more nourishing more

stimulating to an active enquiring mind

than being surprised being amazed it’s

why we’re all here at Ted right but you

don’t need to rush off away from the

familiar across the world to be

surprised you just need to step outside

pay attention to what’s so commonplace

so every day so mundane that everybody

else misses it

one glad that people rarely miss is this

one the cumulonimbus storm cloud alright

what produces thunder and lightning and

hail these clouds spread out at the top

in this enormous anvil fashion

stretching 10 miles up into the

atmosphere they are an expression of the

majestic architecture of our atmosphere

but from down below they are the

embodiment of the powerful elemental

force and power that drives our

atmosphere to be there is

to be connected in the driving rain and

the hail to feel connected to our

atmosphere just to be reminded that we

are creatures that inhabit this ocean of

air we don’t live beneath the sky we

live within it and that connection that

visceral connection to our atmosphere

feels to me like an antidote it’s an

antidote to the growing tendency we have

to feel that we can really ever

experience life by watching it on a

computer screen you know when we’re in a

Wi-Fi zone but the one cloud that best

expresses why cloud spotting is more

valuable today than ever is this one the

cumulus cloud right it forms on a sunny

day if you close your eyes and think of

a cloud it’s probably one of these that

comes to mind all those cloud shapes at

the beginning those were cumulus clouds

the sharp crisp outlines of this

formation make it the best one for

finding shapes in and it reminds us of

the aimless nature of cloud spotting

what an aimless activity it is you’re

not gonna change the world by lying on

your back and gazing up at the sky are

you this appointment it’s a pointless

activity which is precisely why it’s so

important

the the digital world conspires to make

us feel eternally busy perpetually busy

you know when you’re not dealing with

the traditional pressures of earning a

living putting food on the table raising

a family writing thank-you letters you

have to now contend with answering a

mountain of unanswered emails updating a

Facebook page feeding your Twitter feed

and cloud spotting legitimizes doing

nothing and sometimes we need sometimes

we need excuses to do nothing we need to

be reminded by these patron goddesses of

idle fellows that slowing down and being

in the present not thinking about what

you’ve got to do what you should have

done but just being here letting your

imagination lift from the everyday

concerns down here and just being in the

present it’s good for you it’s good for

the way you feel it’s good for your

ideas it’s good for your creativity it’s

good for your soul so keep looking up

marvel at the ephemeral beauty and

always remember to live life with your

head in the clouds

thank you very much

you