For centuries clouds have been blamed for ruining picnics. In the early 2000s the British writer Gavin Pretor-Pinney decided they deserved better. In 2004 he founded the Cloud Appreciation Society, and in 2006 he published The Cloudspotter's Guide, a witty, learned book that became a bestseller.
The society's idea is simple: clouds are fascinating, and looking up is good for you. Members around the world send in photographs, argue about identification and share their favourites. It now counts many thousands of members.
Its best-known campaign concerned a roiling, wave-like cloud formation that members kept photographing and that had no official name. They called it asperitas, from the Latin for roughness, and lobbied the World Meteorological Organization to recognise it. In 2017 the WMO added asperitas to its International Cloud Atlas, the first new addition of its kind for decades.
Pretor-Pinney also argues that cloud-watching is a gentle kind of mindfulness: a reason to stop, tip your head back and pay attention to something that costs nothing. It is an argument we have a lot of sympathy for.
Nephomancy adds a playful layer on top. First look closely at what is really there, as the cloud lovers do, then ask what it makes you wonder. The looking comes first.
