The Cloudspotter's Guide

We pledge to fight 'blue-sky thinking wherever we find it. Life would be dull if we had to look up at cloudless monotony day after day.

The humble Cumulus humilis - never hurt a soul.

Clouds are the most egalitarian of nature's displays, since each one of us has a good view of them, so it really doesn't matter where you are.

Don't be brainwashed by the sun fascists - fair-weather Cumulus have a starring role in the perfect summer's day.

A cloudspotter should hold up three fingers with an extended arm. If the individual elements of the layer are wider than all three fingers, the cloud is probably of the lower Stratocumulus genus. If they are smaller than the width of one finger, then it is more likely to be a high layer of cloudlets, called a Cirrocumulus. It is most likely to be an Altocumulus layer when the size of the cloudlets is somewhere between the two – smaller than three fingers and larger than one.