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