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Do you ever get the feeling
you look at the world differently
from your friends?

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So, how was your holiday?

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I have never
seen such piercing blue skies.

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Not a cloud in the sky, not one.
It was blue, every single...
I'll show you my photos!

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Every single photo is just
blue, it's just amazing!

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Am I the only person who
prefers clouds to blue skies?

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When I was a kid
and my family went on holiday,

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I'd sit by the window of the plane
so I could look out at the clouds.

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I wanted to jump,

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see if I could land on one of them.

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All kids love clouds. So why is it
when we're older, we seem to spend

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all our holiday time and money
trying to get away from them?

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I'd be happy if I never saw
a cloud again, frankly.

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When they're not being ignored,
they're the topic of complaint.

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Clouds are pretty much
viewed as a nuisance,
blocking out the sun and blue sky.

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They ruin our chances
of sunburn and melanomas.

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Clouds are the central theme for
every doom and gloom metaphor.

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We talk about you having
a cloud hanging over you.

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And there's nothing worse than
there being a cloud on the horizon.

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We're always trying to
chase the clouds away.

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And someone who's
lost touch with the world

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has his head in the clouds.

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The list goes on and on.

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My name's Gavin Pretor-Pinney,

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and I see it as my
self-appointed duty to
change this sorry state of affairs.

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I want to challenge the delusion
that the only good sky is
a blue sky.

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I think it would be dull.

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I think life would be dull,
if we had to look up at cloudless
monotony day after day after day.

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And that's why I started

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the Cloud Appreciation Society,

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to fight back
against blue-sky thinking.

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In this programme, I want to take
you on a journey of discovery.

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I hope to convince you
that cloudspotting is without doubt

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one of the most pleasurable
and life-affirming pastimes.

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Along the way, I'll not only
show you my top five clouds

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and how they work...

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..but also, I'll try to prove the
existence of a new type of cloud

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that I discovered when cloudspotters
from round the world started to
send me some amazing pictures.

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But getting a cloud officially
recognised by meteorologists

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is something that hasn't been done
for over half a century.

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So it's not gonna be easy

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because this cloud so elusive
and rare.

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In fact, I like to think of it as
the Yeti of cloudspotting.

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It's the ten miles of atmosphere
directly over our heads

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that's the stage for one of the
greatest shows on Earth.

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Suspended over two thirds of our
planet's surface is an epic cast
of infinitely varying forms,

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playing against the backdrop
of night and day, 24/7,
for over four billion years.

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Scaling higher than the
tallest buildings, greater than

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all the oceans, more powerful
than the mightiest volcanoes,

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clouds give our skies
spectacle and drama.

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Clouds reveal the movement
of air within the atmosphere.

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They're the bearers of
fertility and nourishment,

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as well as the agents
of terror and destruction.

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As the ever-present
backdrop to our existence,

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clouds have played a cameo role
throughout the entire history
of religion, art and culture.

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I'm not a scientist or
a meteorologist or
anything like that.

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I'm just someone who likes clouds.

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And I write about them, I give talks
about them - I stand up for them.

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I started the Cloud Appreciation
Society as a bit of a joke.

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I didn't think there'd be
enough people who felt the same way.

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But surprisingly, I wasn't the
sole member of my society for long.

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Now, we've got this amazing network
of members all across the world.

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From Finland to French Polynesia,
from India to Iraq.

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And you know what? They're all
just linked by one thing -

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a love of the sky.

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My name is Harry Reid.

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I'm member number 8,000
of the Cloud Appreciation Society.

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SHE SPEAKS SPANISH

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I'm in the
Cloud Appreciation Society.

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Hi! I'm Susan Thompsongate...

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HE SPEAKS FINNISH

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There's nothing better to just go and
look at the clouds.

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HE SPEAKS GERMAN

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I'm Azhy Chato Hasan, the president
of the Amateur Astronomers'
Association of Kurdistan.

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And member number 1,687 in
the Cloud Appreciation Society.

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But what does it really mean to be
a cloudspotter?

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I'm a member of the Cloud
Appreciation Society because I
just plain appreciate clouds.

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Not all members do
it from the ground.

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Like Achille and
Marta, cloudspotting
on their way to Senegal.

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For me,
watching the clouds is an endlessly
carefree and uplifting activity.

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And it's also something
that can be enjoyed anywhere
with a view of the sky.

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To some,
this is just a kind of overcast day,
it's a grey day, a cloudy day.

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But to me,

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I think it's a beautiful sky.

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And there's so much to
see and read and enjoy in it.

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Right up here around the sun,

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there's just a fantastic
changing mottled effect.

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You've got this cumulus cloud
blowing over in front of the sun,
its crisp edges

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evaporating away and becoming
more fibrous and broken.

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And the light of the sun being
filtered through different layers of
cloud as they pass in front of it.

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And the overall
cloud having a mottled effect.

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Look at all the different shades.

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Up here, you've got just
a whole range of fantastic...

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It's like an abstract painting.

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And as random and whimsical as
clouds might seem, identifying
them is beautifully simple,

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because there are only three
basic shapes to clouds.

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Cumulus - these are the
puffy clouds with flat bottoms
that build up in heaps.

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Stratus, the huge, featureless,
horizontal sheets of cloud.

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And cirrus,
named after the Latin for "curl",
and it's easy to see why.

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Their streaked appearance gives them
the look of wavy hair.

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And though no two clouds are ever
the same, they largely fall in to
one or more of these categories.

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Each has its own
style and character.

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Some form as low down as sea level,
others right up to the
beginnings of space.

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And these cloud types remain pretty
consistent throughout the world.

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Whether it's Florida...

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Or Iceland.

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Probably the most recognisable
and best known of all the clouds
is first up on my list -

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the cumulus.

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Dense and well defined,
this low-level cloud is such a
familiar feature of sunny afternoons

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that it's referred to as
the fair-weather cloud.

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Ideal for kids drawings
and weather map graphics.

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It's a design classic.

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Beautiful, crisp, white,

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cauliflower mounds.

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The cumulus cloud is
the most light-hearted of
all the cloud types.

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And it's the best one
for finding shapes in.

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Its flat bottom and rotund top
make it the cutest in the sky.

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But beware.
This humble little cloud can easily
turn into a feisty one.

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If the air around is unstable,
it can grow from the middle,

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rising up in towers to become the
biggest in its class.

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The cumulus congestus.

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If this happens before midday,
there's a chance of

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a heavy shower in the afternoon -
giving rise to the saying,

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"In the morning, mountains,
in the afternoon, fountains."

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Cumulus clouds can be found
everywhere except the poles, where
it's too cold for them to form.

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You can't be a cloudspotter
and not love the cumulus.

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And the clue to how these beautiful
cumulus clouds form

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comes from the
fact they appear on a sunny day.

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Because it's the sun,
warming the ground and causing

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thermals of air to lift off from it
that give rise to cumulus clouds.

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It's a little bit like

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in a lava lamp.

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In the base of the lamp,
a light bulb heats this oil
that's mixed in with the water.

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And as the bulb at the bottom of the
lamp warms the oil, the oil expands
a little bit, becomes

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a little bit less dense than
the water and starts to float
languidly up through the lamp.

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Although these are liquids,
it's not a million miles away from
what happens outside on a sunny day.

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Because it's the sun, warming
the ground and causing
thermals of air

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to lift off from it
that give rise to cumulus clouds.

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The sun warms the ground and some
parts of the ground heat the air
more efficiently than others.

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So, a ploughed field will
warm the air above it
more quickly than a bit of woodland.

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And that part of the warm field
warms the air above it,

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which begins to rise in a bubble,
just like the oil in a lamp.

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And as it rises, it expands.

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And as it expands, it cools...

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Until it's cool enough
for some of the moisture

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in that rising pocket of air
to appear as tiny water droplets.

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And that's when a cumulus forms.

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Like a giant ice cream, sitting
on an invisible cone of rising air.

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The cumulus is the cloud of
choice for 11-year-old Emily Bell,
member number 2,042.

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My favourite clouds
are cumulus clouds.

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They have this kind of
happy feel about them
and never make you feel sad.

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Some look like things.

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In this picture, I see a
baby elephant.

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I think that's an elephant
poking his head over the mountain.

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This one looks like
a flying elephant.

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And this one looks like an elephant
just about to blow his trunk.

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This is another elephant.

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This one I thought looked like a
baby duck.

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But Dad thought it looked a bit like
an elephant.

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Now, look. What can you see?

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What sort of clouds can you see now?

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What are these? Do you know?

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I'm encouraging
my two-and-a-half-year-old daughter,
Flora,

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to share my interest in
cloudspotting.

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Now, what we can see here, Floss,
what we can see here is, up there...

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Can you see, right up there?

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Right up there. What are those ones?

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Those wispy wispies?

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What are those called?

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Cirrus. Cirrus, that's right.

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And what about these big,
clumpy, fluffy ones, here?

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One way or another, clouds
figure in our earliest memories.

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Perhaps it's because,
as babies lying on our backs, being
pushed around in prams and buggies,

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we spend so much
time gazing up at them.

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My earliest memory of
clouds is staring out the
window of my parent's car.

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I thought that men climbed up on
giant ladders to harvest cotton
wool so fine as to be weightless.

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Much later on, to my bitter
disappointment, I discovered they
were made of something else.

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Water.

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The stuff responsible for
all life on the planet.

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More specifically,
clouds are made from water that's

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00:18:07,480 --> 00:18:11,160
evaporated from the planet's surface
by the heat of the sun.

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00:18:13,120 --> 00:18:20,720
In fact, the equivalent of over six
times the Mediterranean Ocean is up
in our atmosphere at any one time.

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00:18:25,360 --> 00:18:29,520
A thought that would be a bit
worrying for the fairytale character

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Chicken Licken,
whose story revolved around his fear
of the sky falling down.

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00:18:37,520 --> 00:18:39,440
Maybe he did have a point.

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00:18:39,440 --> 00:18:45,280
After all, it's curious
how something so massive
can seem to defy gravity.

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00:18:48,480 --> 00:18:54,280
Here's Professor John Thornes,
who's kindly offered to shed
light on this worrying thought.

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00:18:57,720 --> 00:19:02,400
One of the amazing things about
clouds is that they're so heavy.

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The water, at the sort of
height and temperature that we can
see them in the sky,

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00:19:07,040 --> 00:19:11,840
is actually
1,000 times heavier than the air.

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00:19:11,840 --> 00:19:15,800
Therefore, a typical cumulus
cloud weighs several thousand tonnes.

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00:19:15,800 --> 00:19:19,040
Therefore, in the old days,
scientists couldn't understand

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00:19:19,040 --> 00:19:23,080
why the cloud didn't just plummet
from the sky and fall on your head.

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00:19:23,080 --> 00:19:28,760
But in reality, the cloud is falling,
but very, very slowly at what we
call the terminal velocity.

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00:19:28,760 --> 00:19:31,480
There's a balance of
forces between gravity

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00:19:31,480 --> 00:19:37,720
pulling those water droplets down and
the resistance, the friction of the
air molecules acting against that.

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00:19:37,720 --> 00:19:42,960
And so the cloud is falling, but
only at a few centimetres a second.

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00:19:42,960 --> 00:19:47,440
So it does look as though
it's stationary
in the sky, but it's not at all.

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00:19:49,120 --> 00:19:53,360
But only a part of the
moisture in the atmosphere
is in the form of clouds.

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00:19:55,160 --> 00:19:59,760
Most of it is water vapour,
which is invisible.

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00:19:59,760 --> 00:20:03,720
It's why you can have clear
skies on of the muggiest of days.

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00:20:09,240 --> 00:20:13,280
And, as my kettle demonstrates,
clouds form when some of that

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00:20:13,280 --> 00:20:20,040
invisible water vapour
condenses into the tiny
water droplets that we can see.

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00:20:27,400 --> 00:20:32,640
And how this happens
isn't as obvious as you might think.

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00:20:32,640 --> 00:20:39,400
The answer
lies in dirty air,
that has dust and impurities in it.

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00:20:39,400 --> 00:20:45,680
It can be anything from smoke and
pollution, to salt particles blown
up from the surface of the sea.

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00:20:47,160 --> 00:20:50,480
I've heard that there's not only
a way of demonstrating

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00:20:50,480 --> 00:20:57,480
that clouds need these particles
to form, but also a way of
creating a cloud in a bottle.

209
00:21:05,040 --> 00:21:06,880
Right, OK. Here it is.

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00:21:06,880 --> 00:21:10,880
How to make a cloud in a bottle.

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00:21:12,400 --> 00:21:19,280
Ingredients. You need one clear
plastic bottle.

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00:21:19,280 --> 00:21:26,440
Take off the label. I don't want to
have that in the way of the cloud.

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00:21:26,440 --> 00:21:29,440
I don't know if this is gonna work.
I'm going to give it a go.

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00:21:31,120 --> 00:21:38,240
You need some water
and you need some matches.

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00:21:38,240 --> 00:21:42,880
You never know, we might be
able to make a cumulonimbus.

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00:21:42,880 --> 00:21:46,680
It says here,
"Adult supervision required."

217
00:21:46,680 --> 00:21:48,440
There we go.

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00:21:48,440 --> 00:21:50,960
The perfect cloud chamber.

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00:21:55,880 --> 00:22:02,720
You start by placing just enough
warm water in the bottle to cover
the base of it.

220
00:22:05,600 --> 00:22:08,880
Then you want to introduce
a bit of smoke.

221
00:22:11,480 --> 00:22:17,760
So you light a match, let it burn
for a few seconds and blow it out.

222
00:22:19,400 --> 00:22:23,200
And then, there's that smoke.

223
00:22:23,200 --> 00:22:25,520
The important ingredient.

224
00:22:29,400 --> 00:22:35,040
Just put the lid on
quickly, before it escapes.

225
00:22:35,040 --> 00:22:40,200
Then you need
to do the bottle squeezing part.

226
00:22:40,200 --> 00:22:42,400
That involves

227
00:22:42,400 --> 00:22:47,880
six or seven brisk squeezes.

228
00:22:47,880 --> 00:22:51,680
I'm gonna squeeze it,
as it suggested. Clear...

229
00:22:55,440 --> 00:23:00,320
And this it says, apparently,
is enough to make a cloud
appear within the bottle.

230
00:23:01,840 --> 00:23:03,480
I think

231
00:23:03,480 --> 00:23:05,920
I need a dark background.

232
00:23:05,920 --> 00:23:07,400
Wait a second.

233
00:23:10,440 --> 00:23:13,920
OK. So, how this is supposed
to work is that you create...

234
00:23:15,520 --> 00:23:20,160
..an area of saturated air,
with a lot of moisture
in it within the bottle.

235
00:23:20,160 --> 00:23:27,720
And the smoke particles are there
to provide little nuclei on to which

236
00:23:27,720 --> 00:23:34,920
this moisture, this invisible water
vapour in the bottle can condense
into droplets. That is definitely...

237
00:23:34,920 --> 00:23:37,400
That is a cloud.

238
00:23:37,400 --> 00:23:39,680
Each time you squeeze it,

239
00:23:39,680 --> 00:23:42,880
the air with in the bottle
warms slightly.

240
00:23:42,880 --> 00:23:45,640
And each time you
release the pressure,

241
00:23:47,160 --> 00:23:49,720
the air expands and it cools.

242
00:23:49,720 --> 00:23:53,920
And it's that moment, when it
expands and it cools that

243
00:23:53,920 --> 00:24:00,600
some of the moisture, can condense
on these particles of smoke
into little droplets.

244
00:24:00,600 --> 00:24:06,040
And that is how... At
least that's what it says here, that
is how you make a cloud in a bottle.

245
00:24:06,040 --> 00:24:11,840
Isn't that amazing? Wait a second,
you can see some colours.

246
00:24:11,840 --> 00:24:16,000
That's iridescence. As the light
shines through, it's deflected by

247
00:24:16,000 --> 00:24:20,480
the particles of that cloud and
it's caused the iridescent colours.

248
00:24:20,480 --> 00:24:23,360
You sometimes see that in a cloud in
the sky,

249
00:24:23,360 --> 00:24:27,360
around the edges,
as the sunlight comes through.

250
00:24:27,360 --> 00:24:31,920
It can cause a kind of
beautiful pastel rainbow colours.

251
00:24:50,720 --> 00:24:54,480
My cloud in a bottle has even
made iridescence. That's beautiful.

252
00:25:04,960 --> 00:25:07,680
Hello. My name is Klaus Nuchtern.

253
00:25:07,680 --> 00:25:10,840
I am a journalist from Austria
and I am a member of

254
00:25:10,840 --> 00:25:13,840
the Cloud Appreciation Society.

255
00:25:13,840 --> 00:25:17,120
Which I can prove, here is my
certificate.

256
00:25:17,120 --> 00:25:22,160
Number 30,220, that's me.

257
00:25:22,160 --> 00:25:25,520
Why am I a cloudspotter?

258
00:25:25,520 --> 00:25:29,120
Well, actually, I guess everybody is.

259
00:25:29,120 --> 00:25:31,800
I confess to being one,

260
00:25:31,800 --> 00:25:35,440
which is not
such a difficult thing to do.

261
00:25:43,760 --> 00:25:47,000
The second of my clouds
is stratocumulus.

262
00:25:55,000 --> 00:25:59,400
Bold,
dramatic and endlessly entertaining,

263
00:25:59,400 --> 00:26:04,240
stratocumulus is a low cloud
layer made up of clumps and patches.

264
00:26:07,360 --> 00:26:11,600
It often forms
when a layer of warmer air above

265
00:26:11,600 --> 00:26:15,440
causes cumulus clouds to
spread sideways and join up.

266
00:26:19,040 --> 00:26:22,800
They're probably the best ones
to look out from an aeroplane.

267
00:26:22,800 --> 00:26:29,280
Flying over them,
you can see the turrets rising up
from a stratocumulus cloud.

268
00:26:29,280 --> 00:26:34,360
And it looks like some
magical city in the sky.

269
00:26:34,360 --> 00:26:41,840
The ancient Greeks even had
a name for this vaporous
landscape - nephelococcygia.

270
00:26:41,840 --> 00:26:45,400
Or, in English, cloud-cuckoo-land.

271
00:26:50,000 --> 00:26:57,680
And if the air beneath the
stratocumulus layer is hazy enough,
then the results can be spectacular,

272
00:26:57,680 --> 00:26:59,600
if not divine.

273
00:27:03,040 --> 00:27:07,120
The sunlight bursting through
the gaps creates a light effect

274
00:27:07,120 --> 00:27:11,680
sometimes referred to as
The Fingers Of God.

275
00:27:11,680 --> 00:27:14,800
Or, as the meteorologists say,

276
00:27:14,800 --> 00:27:16,960
crepuscular rays.

277
00:27:22,080 --> 00:27:29,360
And when there's a low sun,
the shadows and the colours across
the top of a stratocumulus cloud

278
00:27:29,360 --> 00:27:32,080
can be some of the most
beautiful in the sky.

279
00:27:39,520 --> 00:27:43,840
And no-one loved the stratocumulus
more than the artist

280
00:27:43,840 --> 00:27:47,520
who, to my mind, was the
greatest ever cloud painter -

281
00:27:47,520 --> 00:27:49,600
John Constable.

282
00:27:52,040 --> 00:27:59,480
He painted this cloud study
in the 1820s when meteorology
was in its infancy.

283
00:27:59,480 --> 00:28:06,280
Yet, Constable's understanding of
a cloud's form and movement
was astounding.

284
00:28:06,280 --> 00:28:11,800
There's that cliche of Inuits have
40 different words for snow.

285
00:28:11,800 --> 00:28:19,320
Well, I think constable has many
more than that, tones of grey, which

286
00:28:19,320 --> 00:28:26,240
he uses to depict the beautiful
way that the light is filtered and

287
00:28:26,240 --> 00:28:28,680
scattered by clouds like this.

288
00:28:28,680 --> 00:28:31,280
This is a stratocumulus sky.

289
00:28:31,280 --> 00:28:34,400
It's one of his cloud studies.

290
00:28:34,400 --> 00:28:42,280
It's one of the clear examples where
Constable is a true cloudspotter
and a true connoisseur of the sky.

291
00:28:52,600 --> 00:28:56,120
But I'm sad to say,
not all artists had

292
00:28:56,120 --> 00:28:59,800
the same passion for understanding
clouds as Constable did.

293
00:29:03,400 --> 00:29:05,240
Take this painting.

294
00:29:08,960 --> 00:29:14,240
At first glance
you might think the artist knew
their cirrus from their stratus.

295
00:29:21,280 --> 00:29:23,040
So, John Brett.

296
00:29:23,040 --> 00:29:26,560
Cloudspotter or not,
is the question.

297
00:29:28,240 --> 00:29:35,920
First thing I like about it is that
he's got these crepuscular rays,
these rays of light that shine down

298
00:29:35,920 --> 00:29:39,400
on account of the shadows
from the clouds.

299
00:29:39,400 --> 00:29:42,640
And they are a beautiful
thing to see in the sky.

300
00:29:42,640 --> 00:29:47,280
I'm really pleased that John Brett
has put those in his paintings.

301
00:29:47,280 --> 00:29:49,840
The other thing
I like about it is

302
00:29:49,840 --> 00:29:53,600
the way the light plays on
the surface of the sea.

303
00:29:53,600 --> 00:29:58,080
That's clearly John Brett's main...

304
00:29:58,080 --> 00:30:01,360
It's the thing that's got him
most excited in this painting.

305
00:30:01,360 --> 00:30:08,400
The thing that makes me think that
perhaps he's not a true connoisseur
of clouds is

306
00:30:08,400 --> 00:30:10,880
the fact that, above

307
00:30:10,880 --> 00:30:17,200
and below this horizon line, right
down the middle of the painting,
they don't seem to match each other.

308
00:30:17,200 --> 00:30:20,800
Because these spots of light,

309
00:30:20,800 --> 00:30:27,320
these torch beams of sunlight
that are
coming down onto the sea surface

310
00:30:27,320 --> 00:30:30,800
wouldn't appear
with those sorts of clouds.

311
00:30:30,800 --> 00:30:34,560
I mean, those are cumulus
clouds, cumulus humilis.

312
00:30:34,560 --> 00:30:36,240
Little cumulus clouds.

313
00:30:36,240 --> 00:30:40,480
Maybe a bit of stratocumulus
further in the distance.

314
00:30:40,480 --> 00:30:45,120
But these sort of spots of
light occur when you have a
genuinely covered sky.

315
00:30:45,120 --> 00:30:51,120
A sky covered with
clouds, stratocumulus
clouds, perhaps, with holes in them.

316
00:30:51,120 --> 00:30:54,920
The holes allow the sunlight
to shine down in these

317
00:30:54,920 --> 00:30:59,240
dramatic shaft of light, which
strike the sea in that way.

318
00:30:59,240 --> 00:31:06,520
So he's just got the sky from one
day and the sea from another day
and stuck them together.

319
00:31:06,520 --> 00:31:10,160
So, you know, a cloudspotter
but not a cloud connoisseur.

320
00:31:13,800 --> 00:31:16,040
This is more like it.

321
00:31:16,040 --> 00:31:17,880
Another Constable.

322
00:31:20,520 --> 00:31:25,800
Right, so this one's
The Opening Of Waterloo Bridge.

323
00:31:25,800 --> 00:31:29,480
You can see all the pomp and
circumstance of that event.

324
00:31:29,480 --> 00:31:31,960
But, of course,
it's totally irrelevant here.

325
00:31:31,960 --> 00:31:37,200
What's important is what Constable
is doing in the sky, as ever.

326
00:31:37,200 --> 00:31:42,480
The first thing that struck me
about this one, that I found quite
pleasing and another reason why

327
00:31:42,480 --> 00:31:48,680
Constable is a great cloud lover,
is what he's done with the
crepuscular rays here.

328
00:31:48,680 --> 00:31:51,840
At first glance, you might
think he's got it wrong.

329
00:31:51,840 --> 00:31:56,680
You might think that
Constable, the great
cloud painter, had made a mistake.

330
00:31:56,680 --> 00:31:59,760
Because these crepuscular rays

331
00:31:59,760 --> 00:32:03,840
seem to kind of converge,
like that, down to a point.

332
00:32:03,840 --> 00:32:07,200
As opposed to what you normally
see, which is crepuscular rays

333
00:32:07,200 --> 00:32:11,040
coming out, spreading like the
fingers of a hand.

334
00:32:11,040 --> 00:32:17,440
And yet, when you look at
where the sun is in this painting,
up in the top left,

335
00:32:17,440 --> 00:32:23,320
you can see that
the sun is kind of behind you,
as you look at the painting.

336
00:32:23,320 --> 00:32:29,360
And so, as these rays converge
off to the horizon, the perspective

337
00:32:29,360 --> 00:32:33,520
means they would actually
converge to a point on the horizon.

338
00:32:33,520 --> 00:32:37,760
So they're actually what's known as
anti-crepuscular rays.

339
00:32:37,760 --> 00:32:43,840
It's when the sun is coming down
and the rays, the shadows and the
shafts of light from the clouds,

340
00:32:43,840 --> 00:32:48,000
are converging
as they go off towards the horizon.

341
00:32:48,000 --> 00:32:54,560
So, this was before
meteorologists had even given
these anti-crepuscular rays a name.

342
00:32:54,560 --> 00:32:56,640
It's before they'd categorised them.

343
00:32:56,640 --> 00:33:03,560
And Constable, just by his pure
genius of observing the
sky with meticulous care,

344
00:33:03,560 --> 00:33:07,960
was able to spot
them before meteorologists
even gave them a name.

345
00:33:22,200 --> 00:33:25,240
Yeah, this is the one.

346
00:33:25,240 --> 00:33:27,080
This is Jan Siberechts.

347
00:33:27,080 --> 00:33:31,320
The reason I wanted to
find this one is because

348
00:33:31,320 --> 00:33:36,040
it's an example, a good example,
of someone getting the sky wrong.

349
00:33:36,040 --> 00:33:42,520
I mean, when is it? 1690.
So you can't give
him too much of a hard time.

350
00:33:42,520 --> 00:33:45,320
But he's depicting
a double rainbow here.

351
00:33:45,320 --> 00:33:48,800
When you have a double rainbow,
it's something you see in the sky

352
00:33:48,800 --> 00:33:51,640
quite a lot, but
the inner bow is the brighter one.

353
00:33:51,640 --> 00:33:53,560
The outer bow is the dimmer.

354
00:33:53,560 --> 00:33:56,520
The secondary bow is the outer bow.

355
00:33:56,520 --> 00:34:03,080
So he's got his double rainbow the
wrong way round. A classic mistake.

356
00:34:03,080 --> 00:34:07,280
Clearly, not a cloudspotter
or a cloud connoisseur.

357
00:34:07,280 --> 00:34:08,600
Sorry, Jan Siberechts.

358
00:34:11,560 --> 00:34:13,600
To study the weather,

359
00:34:13,600 --> 00:34:18,240
you must need to know about isobars
and all sorts of technical things.

360
00:34:18,240 --> 00:34:21,920
But to study clouds,
all you need to do is to appreciate

361
00:34:21,920 --> 00:34:23,600
how truly beautiful they are.

362
00:34:27,880 --> 00:34:33,320
Good morning, everybody.
We've got a very special visitor
today, Gavin Pretor-Pinney from

363
00:34:33,320 --> 00:34:39,680
the Cloud Appreciation Society
has come to speak to us and help us
learn a little bit more about clouds.

364
00:34:39,680 --> 00:34:45,720
We're very intrigued to know how
clouds are formed and the different
sort of ways they might be formed.

365
00:34:45,720 --> 00:34:50,080
So, perhaps you can tell
us a bit more about that.
Do you guys like clouds?

366
00:34:50,080 --> 00:34:52,040
Yeah? Good.

367
00:34:52,040 --> 00:34:53,800
Well, we will begin, in that case.

368
00:34:55,440 --> 00:34:59,480
When I came to the school here,
I was asked to teach geography

369
00:34:59,480 --> 00:35:03,400
and I found that
part of the syllabus was weather.

370
00:35:03,400 --> 00:35:07,040
And I actually
tweaked it so that I could

371
00:35:07,040 --> 00:35:10,200
actually
teach my children more about clouds.

372
00:35:10,200 --> 00:35:12,120
There's so much
in the clouds.

373
00:35:12,120 --> 00:35:15,960
It's not just the weather,
it's a lot of other things.

374
00:35:15,960 --> 00:35:22,400
So clouds are the perfect way of
bringing all sorts of subjects, not
just the geography, into the lesson.

375
00:35:22,400 --> 00:35:25,160
Elephant! Elephant! Elephant!

376
00:35:25,160 --> 00:35:28,120
On a day like today,

377
00:35:28,120 --> 00:35:34,000
the sun warms the ground and the
ground warms the air above it.

378
00:35:34,000 --> 00:35:38,880
I wasn't well as a child and I used
to lie in bed and watch the clouds.

379
00:35:40,480 --> 00:35:48,080
I remember being fascinated by
a marvellous photo of a towering
thundercloud and practising the name.

380
00:35:48,080 --> 00:35:51,080
Cumulonimbus.

381
00:35:51,080 --> 00:35:52,560
Cumulonimbus.

382
00:35:55,160 --> 00:35:58,840
The name and the
mood seemed to match.

383
00:35:59,800 --> 00:36:02,760
Cumulonimbus!

384
00:36:02,760 --> 00:36:05,600
Cumulonimbus!

385
00:36:06,720 --> 00:36:11,200
This is my cloud number three.

386
00:36:11,200 --> 00:36:14,280
It's the big one, the grandaddy.

387
00:36:14,280 --> 00:36:19,720
Cumulonimbus is the most fierce
and fearsome of all the clouds.

388
00:36:21,760 --> 00:36:27,440
Whenever there's a cumulonimbus
around, you know that it's
not going to be a boring day.

389
00:36:29,280 --> 00:36:33,560
Simply put, the cumulonimbus is
a cloud out of control.

390
00:36:33,560 --> 00:36:40,480
So it might come as a surprise that
it starts life as a humble cumulus.

391
00:36:40,480 --> 00:36:47,280
As it grows,
massive currents of warm,
moist air are drawn up its centre.

392
00:36:48,840 --> 00:36:55,960
And, as this cools it condenses,
releasing even more heat, causing
it to build higher and higher.

393
00:36:57,520 --> 00:37:02,200
While its base can be as low
as 2,000 feet, it can reach up

394
00:37:02,200 --> 00:37:08,720
as high as ten miles, making it
the tallest of all the clouds.

395
00:37:08,720 --> 00:37:15,640
These are cumulonimbus clouds. You
can see how, up at the top, they're
spreading out in their anvil shape.

396
00:37:15,640 --> 00:37:19,960
Cumulonimbus incus,
Latin for an anvil.

397
00:37:19,960 --> 00:37:25,560
And
you've got dark masses down at the
bottom, with the base of the cloud.

398
00:37:25,560 --> 00:37:28,000
It's where the
precipitation is coming down

399
00:37:28,000 --> 00:37:33,480
and you've got showers, sudden but
heavy showers, no doubt, down below.

400
00:37:33,480 --> 00:37:37,320
But, up the top,
it's a much more serene affair.

401
00:37:37,320 --> 00:37:39,400
The top of the cloud is glaciated.

402
00:37:39,400 --> 00:37:43,560
It's spreading out in an anvil
shape, unable to rise any higher

403
00:37:43,560 --> 00:37:48,600
because it's reached part of the
atmosphere where the temperature
changes and it acts as

404
00:37:48,600 --> 00:37:54,400
a sort of
glass ceiling, or an invisible
ceiling to the growth of the cloud.

405
00:37:54,400 --> 00:38:00,680
You have the contrast. From
a distance, you have the contrast
between the dark, brooding base and

406
00:38:00,680 --> 00:38:06,960
the light, fluffy, spreading
anvil of the cumulonimbus cloud.

407
00:38:06,960 --> 00:38:10,000
But, beneath its calm exterior,

408
00:38:10,000 --> 00:38:12,040
lies a maelstrom.

409
00:38:15,000 --> 00:38:19,800
And it's the clashing turbulence
inside that generates
the electrical power

410
00:38:19,800 --> 00:38:23,800
that is at once terrifying
and exhilarating.

411
00:38:26,800 --> 00:38:33,600
It's estimated that the average
cumulonimbus contains the energy of
ten atom bombs.

412
00:38:36,160 --> 00:38:41,480
A thundercloud is
a cumulonimbus cloud which has

413
00:38:41,480 --> 00:38:45,280
very high vertical extent and
therefore has quite a long lifetime.

414
00:38:45,280 --> 00:38:50,680
This allows the particles to grow to
quite large sizes, a few millimetres

415
00:38:50,680 --> 00:38:54,680
and larger, which means they're
going to fall relative to other

416
00:38:54,680 --> 00:38:58,400
smaller particles, which are still
being carried up in the updraft.

417
00:38:58,400 --> 00:39:02,960
You get collisions between
two types of particles that
have had different histories.

418
00:39:02,960 --> 00:39:05,760
Therefore, their surface
properties are different.

419
00:39:05,760 --> 00:39:07,520
THUNDER ROARS

420
00:39:07,520 --> 00:39:11,280
The individual particles,
having separated their charges,

421
00:39:11,280 --> 00:39:14,640
usually carry a positive charge
to the top of the thunderstorm.

422
00:39:14,640 --> 00:39:19,880
And a negative charge is carried down
on the hailstones as they fall,
relative to

423
00:39:19,880 --> 00:39:22,760
the ice crystals which
are carried up in the updraft.

424
00:39:22,760 --> 00:39:27,320
Given enough of these
interactions and separations,
a large enough voltage develops

425
00:39:27,320 --> 00:39:32,080
between the positive
and negative layers for
there to be a lightning discharge.

426
00:39:32,080 --> 00:39:33,280
THUNDER ROARS

427
00:39:33,280 --> 00:39:37,080
When a lightning stroke is
occurring, there is local heating

428
00:39:37,080 --> 00:39:41,960
and it heats the local environment to
30,000 degrees Celsius.

429
00:39:41,960 --> 00:39:44,280
Therefore, it causes
a rapid expansion.

430
00:39:44,280 --> 00:39:47,920
It's this rapid expansion which
is creating the noise of thunder.

431
00:39:51,000 --> 00:39:57,600
If you're out hiking and you
feel this tingling and your hair
stands up, it probably means

432
00:39:57,600 --> 00:40:02,560
there's going to be a lightning
stroke near by and you should
minimise your exposure to it.

433
00:40:07,840 --> 00:40:13,440
But it's not just on the ground
that a cumulonimbus can wreak havoc.

434
00:40:13,440 --> 00:40:18,480
If you're a pilot, you're well
advised to take a wide birth.

435
00:40:20,040 --> 00:40:23,920
The least of your problems is the
lightening taking out your electrics

436
00:40:23,920 --> 00:40:28,960
or being pelted with hailstones
the size of tennis balls.

437
00:40:28,960 --> 00:40:34,640
Or even your wings caking
over with ice, dangerously
affecting the aerodynamics.

438
00:40:36,240 --> 00:40:40,360
No, the real problem is
with those mighty updrafts.

439
00:40:40,360 --> 00:40:45,000
They can cause even the
biggest aircraft to flip
over like a pancake.

440
00:40:48,720 --> 00:40:55,360
Few have entered the heart
of a fully-developed cumulonimbus
and lived to tell the tale.

441
00:41:01,080 --> 00:41:06,560
It's nice, because from the
airplane you fly around and
nothing can happen.

442
00:41:06,560 --> 00:41:10,200
You can fly around and
see it from the sides.

443
00:41:10,200 --> 00:41:13,560
Phwoar. It's really beautiful.

444
00:41:13,560 --> 00:41:21,040
Cloudspotter Ewa Wisnierska
is proud of her collection of
cumulonimbus photos, all taken

445
00:41:21,040 --> 00:41:26,080
from a sensible distance within the
safety of a modern passenger plane.

446
00:41:26,080 --> 00:41:33,280
But imagine if you looked
out through one of the aircraft
windows as you cruised at 30,000 feet

447
00:41:33,280 --> 00:41:38,480
and you saw a woman,
barely conscious, and caked in ice,

448
00:41:38,480 --> 00:41:45,720
emerging from the flat top of
the cumulonimbus in temperatures
below minus 40 degrees Celsius.

449
00:41:46,880 --> 00:41:53,240
She'd appear only briefly
before being sucked back into
the abyss of the thunder cloud.

450
00:41:54,920 --> 00:42:02,040
Though it sounds farfetched, it's
exactly what happened to champion
paraglider Ewa, over the skies of

451
00:42:02,040 --> 00:42:07,880
New South Wales, Australia,
during a test flight for
a major competition.

452
00:42:08,240 --> 00:42:11,720
And it's a miracle she's still alive.

453
00:42:12,600 --> 00:42:17,520
It was the 14th February 2007.

454
00:42:17,520 --> 00:42:23,120
We were about 130, maybe 150 pilots.

455
00:42:23,120 --> 00:42:26,200
The sky was looking
really nice, blue.

456
00:42:26,200 --> 00:42:30,160
But we
could already see two big clouds.

457
00:42:30,160 --> 00:42:37,520
And, when we passed, the clouds
seemed to grow and to come together,

458
00:42:37,520 --> 00:42:43,840
which made them bigger and
a thunderstorm built.

459
00:42:45,200 --> 00:42:50,680
Suddenly, I got very strong lift
which sucked me into the cloud.

460
00:42:52,160 --> 00:42:56,440
From the cloud base,
Ewa found herself soaring up

461
00:42:56,440 --> 00:43:01,120
into the storm at an astonishing
20 metres per second,

462
00:43:01,120 --> 00:43:04,720
straight into
the heart of the cumulonimbus.

463
00:43:04,720 --> 00:43:07,200
It was dark, black.

464
00:43:07,200 --> 00:43:10,920
So I couldn't see anything,
I only could hear it.

465
00:43:14,840 --> 00:43:19,600
Despite being surrounded by
unimaginable surges of energy,

466
00:43:19,600 --> 00:43:25,200
the temperature was rapidly dropping
with altitude, one degree Celsius

467
00:43:25,200 --> 00:43:28,920
for every 100 metres she went up.

468
00:43:28,920 --> 00:43:33,800
As it fell below minus ten,
frostbite began to set in.

469
00:43:33,800 --> 00:43:35,640
Everything was cold and frozen.

470
00:43:35,640 --> 00:43:40,920
I was shaking.
You cannot imagine this temperature.

471
00:43:45,800 --> 00:43:49,520
And, as the air got thinner,
Ewa struggled to stay awake.

472
00:43:49,520 --> 00:43:51,880
I was going up and

473
00:43:51,880 --> 00:43:55,920
there is less oxygen in the altitude.

474
00:43:55,920 --> 00:44:01,200
One moment, I just get unconscious.

475
00:44:04,160 --> 00:44:11,120
Dangling unconscious from her
paraglider, Ewa's instruments
continued to log her flight.

476
00:44:13,840 --> 00:44:19,240
A layer of ice would have covered
her body, in temperatures below -40.

477
00:44:23,520 --> 00:44:25,360
I woke up again,

478
00:44:26,880 --> 00:44:29,200
and still in the cloud.

479
00:44:29,200 --> 00:44:33,240
I didn't know, I couldn't
even imagine how high I was.

480
00:44:34,760 --> 00:44:39,240
For a short moment,
I went out of the clouds.

481
00:44:39,240 --> 00:44:46,520
Ewa was almost 10,000 meters above
sea level, the cruising altitude
of a jet airliner.

482
00:44:48,560 --> 00:44:51,760
I was still above the cumulus.

483
00:44:51,760 --> 00:44:54,280
I could see the sun
for a little moment.

484
00:44:54,280 --> 00:44:58,960
But then the glider
entered the cloud again.

485
00:45:00,640 --> 00:45:06,880
And I was, like, talking to somebody,
to the angels, I don't know.

486
00:45:06,880 --> 00:45:10,120
Actually, I am not religious.

487
00:45:10,120 --> 00:45:15,160
But I was thinking, like,
"Please. Not here. Not like this.

488
00:45:15,160 --> 00:45:19,960
Hurtling back to earth
at 33 metres per second,

489
00:45:19,960 --> 00:45:23,920
Ewa somehow managed to regain
control of her glider.

490
00:45:23,920 --> 00:45:28,960
And when I saw I was
coming out from the fog,

491
00:45:28,960 --> 00:45:32,000
it was really incredible feeling.

492
00:45:32,000 --> 00:45:34,240
I could see the earth again.

493
00:45:36,280 --> 00:45:39,840
Ewa's story was a media sensation.

494
00:45:39,840 --> 00:45:44,120
Rescued 60 kilometres
from her launch site,

495
00:45:44,120 --> 00:45:46,880
and with only frostbite
to her legs and head,

496
00:45:46,880 --> 00:45:51,160
it was a miracle she didn't suffer
brain damage from lack of oxygen.

497
00:45:51,160 --> 00:45:57,640
In total, she'd been inside
the storm cloud for a staggering
90 minutes,

498
00:45:57,640 --> 00:46:01,080
tossed around by the rising
and falling currents

499
00:46:01,080 --> 00:46:04,920
like a rag doll
in a washing machine.

500
00:46:04,920 --> 00:46:10,920
Later, Ewa discovered that another
pilot caught in the same cloud

501
00:46:10,920 --> 00:46:14,080
died from a lightning strike.

502
00:46:14,080 --> 00:46:19,400
It's curious,
but I still like the clouds.

503
00:46:19,400 --> 00:46:23,600
Of course, I respect
big clouds much more.

504
00:46:26,040 --> 00:46:29,120
This is already cumulus congestus

505
00:46:29,120 --> 00:46:34,840
and you can see on the top,
it's going to the sides already.

506
00:46:34,840 --> 00:46:39,920
And this one starts
already to froze a little bit

507
00:46:39,920 --> 00:46:41,720
on the edge.

508
00:46:41,720 --> 00:46:48,040
So, probably, this one will
grow up to a thunderstorm.

509
00:46:48,040 --> 00:46:51,840
So if you see something like this,
you should go to land.

510
00:46:54,560 --> 00:46:58,160
Clouds came close
to ending Ewa's life.

511
00:46:58,160 --> 00:47:03,200
But for a certain newlywed couple,
it's what brought them together.

512
00:47:03,200 --> 00:47:06,680
My knowledge, my interest
and fascination with clouds

513
00:47:06,680 --> 00:47:09,200
really only developed
when I met Richard

514
00:47:09,200 --> 00:47:12,080
because he's a bit
of a cloudspotting geek.

515
00:47:12,080 --> 00:47:14,600
I've always call him
my little geography geek.

516
00:47:14,600 --> 00:47:18,280
And he took it upon himself, whether
I was willing to listen or not,

517
00:47:18,280 --> 00:47:23,840
to tell me about clouds, weather
formations, fronts, thunderclouds.

518
00:47:23,840 --> 00:47:28,240
And I just thought, "God, this
guy, there's a bit of depth to him."

519
00:47:28,240 --> 00:47:32,680
"He's not just about taking me
for a pint of lager and
some fish and chips or whatever.

520
00:47:32,680 --> 00:47:36,920
"He actually wants to show me
something that is important to him."

521
00:47:44,880 --> 00:47:49,520
The wind certainly picked up
more than from when we were
sitting in our cosy little house.

522
00:47:54,280 --> 00:47:56,440
But up here, we're with the elements.

523
00:47:56,440 --> 00:47:59,080
The clouds are rolling in
thick and fast.

524
00:47:59,080 --> 00:48:04,480
There's some high-level clouds
that are actually alto-stratus.

525
00:48:04,480 --> 00:48:07,680
Beneath that, we've got
some low-level cumulus.

526
00:48:07,680 --> 00:48:11,240
When you come up here, the clouds
are moving so fast over your head

527
00:48:11,240 --> 00:48:14,520
that you just get totally
caught up in nature.

528
00:48:14,520 --> 00:48:17,760
If you look down the cliffs, you
can see the clouds are forming.

529
00:48:17,760 --> 00:48:19,600
So, it's a really delightful spot.

530
00:48:19,600 --> 00:48:22,520
You can see where it all starts.
There are clouds forming

531
00:48:22,520 --> 00:48:25,640
and you can see them spiralling up
to become cumulus clouds

532
00:48:25,640 --> 00:48:27,840
which will shortly pass
over our heads.

533
00:48:32,400 --> 00:48:37,480
Well, just below the cliff
is an old quarry, actually.

534
00:48:37,480 --> 00:48:42,560
And it's tradition that people
should create with the stones

535
00:48:42,560 --> 00:48:44,160
whatever they wish.

536
00:48:44,160 --> 00:48:46,240
Which is then read from above.

537
00:48:46,240 --> 00:48:49,240
Some are creative and some are
a little bit lewd.

538
00:48:49,240 --> 00:48:51,520
SHE LAUGHS

539
00:48:51,520 --> 00:48:54,720
So, yeah, we're gonna
go off and have a bit of fun

540
00:48:54,720 --> 00:48:56,920
creating something with our stones.

541
00:49:40,440 --> 00:49:44,600
The International Cloud Atlas is...

542
00:49:44,600 --> 00:49:47,560
Well, I guess it's required
reading for a cloudspotter.

543
00:49:47,560 --> 00:49:51,800
But it's not exactly a page-turner,
put it that way.

544
00:49:54,240 --> 00:49:57,360
It's the publication that sets out

545
00:49:57,360 --> 00:50:00,720
the official classifications
of clouds.

546
00:50:00,720 --> 00:50:04,520
It's put out by the World
Meteorological Organisation.

547
00:50:04,520 --> 00:50:08,480
This edition is 1975 -
the most recent edition.

548
00:50:08,480 --> 00:50:13,080
The reason for putting together
a cloud atlas

549
00:50:13,080 --> 00:50:20,480
was so that meteorological observers
around the world could ensure

550
00:50:20,480 --> 00:50:23,320
that they were speaking
about the same things

551
00:50:23,320 --> 00:50:25,920
when they described the sky.

552
00:50:25,920 --> 00:50:29,560
So that we knew that when someone
observed

553
00:50:29,560 --> 00:50:33,680
an alto-cumulus castellanus
over in Sweden, they were

554
00:50:33,680 --> 00:50:37,960
talking about the same thing as
someone observing one over here.

555
00:50:37,960 --> 00:50:42,160
Arranging, classifying
and cataloguing

556
00:50:42,160 --> 00:50:46,440
is something that goes back
to ancient civilisations.

557
00:50:46,440 --> 00:50:49,920
It's almost part of our make-up.

558
00:50:52,560 --> 00:50:55,600
But it wasn't until the turn of
the 19th century

559
00:50:55,600 --> 00:50:58,080
that clouds were actually
given names.

560
00:51:01,240 --> 00:51:04,360
So why did it take so long?

561
00:51:04,360 --> 00:51:10,240
Over to Dr Richard Hamblyn,
member 813.

562
00:51:10,240 --> 00:51:14,480
Clouds remained, up until the
coming of the Scientific Revolution,

563
00:51:14,480 --> 00:51:16,240
objects at a distance.

564
00:51:17,960 --> 00:51:21,240
They were not really things
that could be studied in any way

565
00:51:21,240 --> 00:51:24,360
or things that could be
grasped in any way.

566
00:51:24,360 --> 00:51:28,280
They were up there as
sort of challenges to philosophy.

567
00:51:28,280 --> 00:51:32,880
They were the extreme manifestation
of the ungraspable.

568
00:51:34,440 --> 00:51:38,240
The average lifespan of
a cumulus cloud in the summer

569
00:51:38,240 --> 00:51:39,880
is about ten minutes.

570
00:51:39,880 --> 00:51:43,280
So if you were to stand
watching the sky for ten minutes,

571
00:51:43,280 --> 00:51:49,280
you'd watch the birth, life and death
of this tiny vaporous civilisation.

572
00:51:51,720 --> 00:51:55,520
And they were confounding
for scientists and philosophers

573
00:51:55,520 --> 00:51:59,200
and artists alike
because they never stayed still,

574
00:51:59,200 --> 00:52:03,760
they changed their form.
They were easier to be ignored.

575
00:52:08,880 --> 00:52:11,360
So clouds remained nameless...

576
00:52:14,600 --> 00:52:17,880
..until one evening in London,
December 1802,

577
00:52:17,880 --> 00:52:22,120
when shy pharmacist and amateur
meteorologist Luke Howard

578
00:52:22,120 --> 00:52:26,000
brought along an essay
he'd spent years preparing

579
00:52:26,000 --> 00:52:29,440
to read to a small
science debating society.

580
00:52:32,960 --> 00:52:34,680
His claim was very simple.

581
00:52:34,680 --> 00:52:39,800
There were three main families
of cloud, to which every other

582
00:52:39,800 --> 00:52:44,000
cloud form was either a transitional
form or a modification of.

583
00:52:44,000 --> 00:52:46,840
Luke Howard's masterstroke

584
00:52:46,840 --> 00:52:52,200
was to use the existing Latin system
for classifying plants and animals.

585
00:52:52,200 --> 00:52:55,240
So terms such as genus and species

586
00:52:55,240 --> 00:52:57,880
would be familiar
to scientists everywhere.

587
00:53:01,360 --> 00:53:06,120
The Latin names he gave the clouds
could be used in
different combinations,

588
00:53:06,120 --> 00:53:12,080
reflecting how clouds are never
static, but always in transition.

589
00:53:12,080 --> 00:53:13,360
So, for example,

590
00:53:13,360 --> 00:53:19,280
a thin wispy high cirrus cloud
might descend and spread out to form

591
00:53:19,280 --> 00:53:23,000
a cirro-stratus and so you can see
the way that he's combined

592
00:53:23,000 --> 00:53:25,280
those two terms
to produce a third term.

593
00:53:27,080 --> 00:53:31,120
The beauty of Luke Howard's cloud
classification was it allowed you

594
00:53:31,120 --> 00:53:33,800
to keep track of what was
happening now

595
00:53:33,800 --> 00:53:36,440
and also
what was just about to happen.

596
00:53:36,440 --> 00:53:40,560
That gave meteorology a scientific
basis. It made it a modern science.

597
00:53:42,160 --> 00:53:47,240
The interest in Luke Howard's ideas
was immediate and unprecedented.

598
00:53:47,240 --> 00:53:52,920
Suddenly the doors were open to a
scientific understanding of clouds.

599
00:54:00,840 --> 00:54:06,120
The new classification of clouds
also had a wider cultural impact.

600
00:54:06,120 --> 00:54:09,160
It inspired the Romantic poets.

601
00:54:11,560 --> 00:54:15,240
Wordsworth's,
"I wandered lonely as a cloud,"

602
00:54:15,240 --> 00:54:19,600
is probably the best known opening
line in the English language.

603
00:54:19,600 --> 00:54:25,080
In Germany, Goethe dedicated
poems to Luke Howard's work.

604
00:54:25,080 --> 00:54:28,040
And Shelley's masterpiece,
The Cloud

605
00:54:28,040 --> 00:54:31,720
had verses themed on each
of his new cloud types.

606
00:54:31,720 --> 00:54:34,320
And painters were able
to use science

607
00:54:34,320 --> 00:54:37,720
to help them express
themselves more accurately.

608
00:54:37,720 --> 00:54:42,880
Constable would refer to
Luke Howard's booklet
as he sketched and painted.

609
00:54:42,880 --> 00:54:45,840
But Constable and the Romantic poets

610
00:54:45,840 --> 00:54:50,400
were ultimately most fascinated
by the emotional power of clouds.

611
00:54:51,760 --> 00:54:54,120
Constable felt the sky
was the keynote

612
00:54:54,120 --> 00:54:56,720
and chief organ of sentiment.

613
00:54:56,720 --> 00:54:59,160
And this painting,
more than any other,

614
00:54:59,160 --> 00:55:03,800
shows how he used clouds
to convey his emotions -

615
00:55:03,800 --> 00:55:07,800
in this case, profound sadness.

616
00:55:07,800 --> 00:55:12,360
It was painted soon after
his wife died in 1828.

617
00:55:15,400 --> 00:55:19,640
There's a kind of bleak mood
to this painting,

618
00:55:19,640 --> 00:55:23,920
which is brought greatly by the sky.

619
00:55:23,920 --> 00:55:27,360
You can see what he means,
"the chief organ of sentiment."

620
00:55:29,840 --> 00:55:34,480
A true cloudspotter and
connoisseur of the skies, indeed.

621
00:55:37,320 --> 00:55:42,960
As I leave the gallery, I'm met
with a vast wet blanket in the sky.

622
00:55:44,280 --> 00:55:47,280
And it's with a heavy heart
that I present to you

623
00:55:47,280 --> 00:55:51,400
the fourth of
my selection of cloud types.

624
00:55:51,400 --> 00:55:55,120
Because in the time it took
to go round the gallery,

625
00:55:55,120 --> 00:56:00,640
the cloud layer above had thickened
to form a nimbostratus.

626
00:56:04,440 --> 00:56:08,120
The one that gives
all the other clouds a bad name.

627
00:56:11,400 --> 00:56:15,280
And it rains and rains and rains.

628
00:56:19,440 --> 00:56:22,560
It is a bit of a miserable cloud.

629
00:56:22,560 --> 00:56:27,200
Low, grey, rainy.

630
00:56:27,200 --> 00:56:29,120
And it's incessant rain -

631
00:56:29,120 --> 00:56:31,720
it goes on and on and on.

632
00:56:37,880 --> 00:56:42,160
And it'll give the cumulonimbus
storm cloud a run for its money

633
00:56:42,160 --> 00:56:47,000
because this cloud
is not only very, very thick,

634
00:56:47,000 --> 00:56:50,760
it spreads over
hundreds of square miles

635
00:56:50,760 --> 00:56:53,520
and it hangs around for ages.

636
00:57:01,760 --> 00:57:05,080
I think it's good to make
a distinction between

637
00:57:05,080 --> 00:57:08,720
cloudspotting
and cloud-appreciating.

638
00:57:10,440 --> 00:57:16,240
And, up above us today,
we've got a nimbostratus cloud.

639
00:57:16,240 --> 00:57:18,480
And so that's spotting it,

640
00:57:18,480 --> 00:57:23,480
but I wouldn't say it's
really one of my favourite clouds.

641
00:57:23,480 --> 00:57:27,560
In fact it is my least favourite
of all the major cloud types.

642
00:57:27,560 --> 00:57:31,280
It does have a very definite
affect on our moods.

643
00:57:31,280 --> 00:57:33,920
I think if we were to stop
anyone here,

644
00:57:33,920 --> 00:57:38,400
you would soon find out that
this is their least favourite cloud.

645
00:57:38,400 --> 00:57:41,240
This? It's just sort of
nothing weather, isn't it?

646
00:57:41,240 --> 00:57:44,680
No good to anyone.
Does it have an effect on your mood?

647
00:57:44,680 --> 00:57:48,560
Yeah, I think it's harder to
be buoyant in this kind of weather.

648
00:57:48,560 --> 00:57:51,200
The whole atmosphere is
really dingy. It's dark.

649
00:57:51,200 --> 00:57:53,240
Your mood kind of
goes along with that.

650
00:57:53,240 --> 00:57:55,240
It's a bit like smog, really.

651
00:57:55,240 --> 00:57:58,920
It downs everyone's mood.
Everyone looks really unhappy!

652
00:57:58,920 --> 00:58:01,960
It sort of hangs around,
a little bit like

653
00:58:01,960 --> 00:58:05,840
a kind of unwanted guest
at a party.

654
00:58:05,840 --> 00:58:09,280
But, hey - I guess I should
consider myself fortunate.

655
00:58:09,280 --> 00:58:12,920
There are some cloudspotters
who'd give their eye teeth

656
00:58:12,920 --> 00:58:15,240
to be stood beneath a nimbostratus.

657
00:58:20,640 --> 00:58:23,160
This is for the northern hemisphere.

658
00:58:25,280 --> 00:58:26,920
Yeah, that'll be better.

659
00:58:26,920 --> 00:58:29,880
I was born in Australia

660
00:58:29,880 --> 00:58:33,440
and I didn't see a cloud till
I was four-years-old

661
00:58:33,440 --> 00:58:35,680
because there was a big drought.

662
00:58:35,680 --> 00:58:39,920
I went outside to look at the clouds
and I got hit in the forehead

663
00:58:39,920 --> 00:58:42,400
by some raindrops and I fainted.

664
00:58:42,400 --> 00:58:46,640
They had to throw two buckets
of dust on me to bring me around.

665
00:58:46,640 --> 00:58:48,840
PHONE RINGS
Hang on!

666
00:58:48,840 --> 00:58:51,280
What? Cumulus?

667
00:58:51,280 --> 00:58:53,640
Right, in Cairns? I'll be there!

668
00:58:53,640 --> 00:58:55,600
I've got to go. I'm sorry.

669
00:58:55,600 --> 00:58:57,880
It's only 800 miles.
I'll be there tomorrow.

670
00:59:04,120 --> 00:59:07,560
It never rains, but it snows.

671
00:59:07,560 --> 00:59:13,040
It's surprising to know that almost
all rain in temperate climates

672
00:59:13,040 --> 00:59:17,160
starts off as snow as it leaves
the cloud, even in the summer.

673
00:59:17,160 --> 00:59:19,280
If it's warm enough,

674
00:59:19,280 --> 00:59:23,400
the snowflakes melt into raindrops
as they fall to the ground.

675
00:59:26,040 --> 00:59:29,080
And all it takes for the cloud
to start precipitating

676
00:59:29,080 --> 00:59:31,720
is a few ice crystals,
which will form

677
00:59:31,720 --> 00:59:34,280
when the temperature is low enough.

678
00:59:34,280 --> 00:59:37,600
This, in turn,
starts a chain reaction

679
00:59:37,600 --> 00:59:42,360
as the crystals grow, break up and
stick to other water droplets,

680
00:59:42,360 --> 00:59:45,360
causing them to freeze, too.

681
00:59:47,280 --> 00:59:52,200
Now supposedly there's a great way
of demonstrating this,

682
00:59:52,200 --> 00:59:56,360
turning a whole cloud into
ice crystals, even snow -

683
00:59:56,360 --> 00:59:58,440
that's if I can get it to work.

684
00:59:58,440 --> 01:00:01,200
It sound simple enough, though.

685
01:00:01,200 --> 01:00:05,440
All I need is a fire extinguisher,
a carbon dioxide one.

686
01:00:05,440 --> 01:00:09,920
Then, I'll need to wait
for the right conditions,

687
01:00:09,920 --> 01:00:14,920
a really cold ground level stratus,
commonly known as fog.

688
01:00:17,560 --> 01:00:20,000
I just need to be patient,
that's all.

689
01:00:33,200 --> 01:00:38,280
Right, it's foggy
and it's minus three degrees,

690
01:00:38,280 --> 01:00:43,240
so I figure that's got to
be the perfect conditions for it.

691
01:00:43,240 --> 01:00:47,920
And I've got
my fire extinguisher here ready.

692
01:00:50,520 --> 01:00:51,960
So I'm going to give it a go.

693
01:00:54,320 --> 01:00:56,040
Let's see what happens.

694
01:01:01,120 --> 01:01:05,480
I've spoken to a few meteorologists
who reckon it can be done.

695
01:01:05,480 --> 01:01:10,000
But I don't know anyone
who's actually turned fog into snow.

696
01:01:27,920 --> 01:01:30,920
Are there any signs of freezing?

697
01:01:43,560 --> 01:01:45,440
I don't think that's working.

698
01:02:07,720 --> 01:02:12,120
With these floodlights, I mean...

699
01:02:12,120 --> 01:02:17,720
you'd be able to see if it was ice
crystals rather than droplets.

700
01:02:17,720 --> 01:02:20,920
And I can see that
they are droplets,

701
01:02:20,920 --> 01:02:23,800
and they're not ice crystals.

702
01:02:23,800 --> 01:02:28,240
So it's been an unqualified failure.

703
01:02:35,560 --> 01:02:37,120
Or has it?

704
01:02:41,040 --> 01:02:43,680
Maybe these are sparkling slightly.

705
01:02:45,360 --> 01:02:51,000
Maybe there is something
a little bit twinkly
about these fog particles.

706
01:02:51,000 --> 01:02:52,960
I think they are.

707
01:02:52,960 --> 01:02:55,680
I think they might have frozen.

708
01:02:55,680 --> 01:02:58,760
It's not falling as snow but

709
01:02:58,760 --> 01:03:00,840
it's certainly sparkly.

710
01:03:00,840 --> 01:03:03,400
I'll see if I can get a closer look.

711
01:03:13,280 --> 01:03:16,200
They're definitely sparkling
like ice crystals.

712
01:03:16,200 --> 01:03:19,040
They've got to be ice crystals,
haven't they?

713
01:03:22,880 --> 01:03:24,520
Not in my breath.

714
01:03:24,520 --> 01:03:26,480
My breath is just

715
01:03:26,480 --> 01:03:28,000
normally foggy.

716
01:03:29,080 --> 01:03:32,000
But there's definitely
the sparkle of crystals.

717
01:03:32,000 --> 01:03:33,880
Beautiful.

718
01:03:33,880 --> 01:03:38,720
The frozen particles of carbon
dioxide I sprayed into the fog

719
01:03:38,720 --> 01:03:42,600
certainly seem to have triggered
the formation of ice crystals

720
01:03:42,600 --> 01:03:44,440
right through the cloud.

721
01:03:46,200 --> 01:03:48,080
They're not snowflakes though,

722
01:03:48,080 --> 01:03:51,120
which is when the tiny ice
crystals stick together.

723
01:03:51,120 --> 01:03:53,760
But it's impressive all the same.

724
01:03:55,400 --> 01:04:01,680
In nature, this type of fog cloud
is most common in the polar regions.

725
01:04:01,680 --> 01:04:01,720
And it's beautifully named
diamond dust.

726
01:04:01,880 --> 01:04:06,160
And now the fog's gone.

727
01:04:15,920 --> 01:04:19,360
I don't think that...
I think it was clearing anyway,

728
01:04:19,360 --> 01:04:24,240
but all that's left is just
a few sparkles up in the sky.

729
01:04:24,240 --> 01:04:25,800
You can see them glinting.

730
01:04:27,320 --> 01:04:31,960
I can't suppose the fog went
because of doing this.

731
01:04:31,960 --> 01:04:34,520
That can't be the case.

732
01:04:34,520 --> 01:04:39,520
But the fog has definitely
cleared and there are sparkles,
crystals of ice in the sky.

733
01:04:39,520 --> 01:04:42,080
So, I guess that's a success.

734
01:04:46,400 --> 01:04:50,680
And it's these tiny ice crystals
that also make up

735
01:04:50,680 --> 01:04:54,600
my fifth and favourite
of all the cloud types,

736
01:04:54,600 --> 01:04:56,480
the Cirrus.

737
01:04:58,040 --> 01:05:00,000
So beautiful is this cloud,

738
01:05:00,000 --> 01:05:03,600
that I gave Cirrus as
my daughter's middle name.

739
01:05:03,600 --> 01:05:05,080
In Norse mythology

740
01:05:05,080 --> 01:05:09,920
the fine threads were spun by
the goddess of the atmosphere.

741
01:05:09,920 --> 01:05:11,480
They're not only the highest,

742
01:05:11,480 --> 01:05:15,440
but the fastest moving
of the common clouds.

743
01:05:15,440 --> 01:05:20,200
Up there in the atmosphere,
the winds are travelling so fast.

744
01:05:21,720 --> 01:05:22,960
You'd never think it,

745
01:05:22,960 --> 01:05:27,800
but like the Nimbostratus, it's
actually a precipitating cloud.

746
01:05:27,800 --> 01:05:31,280
Those distinctive and
elegant streaks are in fact

747
01:05:31,280 --> 01:05:33,320
falling ice crystals.

748
01:05:35,080 --> 01:05:38,040
And as those ice crystals descend,

749
01:05:38,040 --> 01:05:41,040
they fall through different
layers of the atmosphere.

750
01:05:41,040 --> 01:05:45,600
And in each layer they can speed up
or slow down, which is why

751
01:05:45,600 --> 01:05:51,400
they take on this beautiful
translucent streaked appearance.

752
01:05:51,400 --> 01:05:55,640
But they melt and evaporate
long before they reach the ground.

753
01:05:57,760 --> 01:05:59,480
Be warned though -

754
01:05:59,480 --> 01:06:02,720
if you see them spread and join,

755
01:06:02,720 --> 01:06:06,000
it could be a sign that
there'll be rain in a day or so.

756
01:06:15,760 --> 01:06:17,400
My name's Louise.

757
01:06:17,400 --> 01:06:21,320
I live in the Great Victoria Desert
in Western Australia.

758
01:06:21,320 --> 01:06:24,400
This is Carlene and Mr Grant.

759
01:06:26,320 --> 01:06:29,160
We've got a lot of
different clouds out here.

760
01:06:29,160 --> 01:06:32,400
The old people can read the clouds.

761
01:06:33,880 --> 01:06:37,080
They can see whether there's
going to be rain or not.

762
01:06:37,080 --> 01:06:40,720
These clouds here - what's the
Pitjantjatjara word for clouds?

763
01:06:40,720 --> 01:06:44,360
Ngangkali. Ngangkali.
Ngangkali. Ngangkali.

764
01:06:44,360 --> 01:06:47,520
That's the Pitjantjatjara
word for cloud. Yeah.

765
01:06:47,520 --> 01:06:50,720
What's the name of that one there?

766
01:06:50,720 --> 01:06:53,400
THEY SPEAK IN PITJANTJATJARA

767
01:06:57,800 --> 01:06:59,320
Yeah.

768
01:06:59,320 --> 01:07:01,240
Any rain in those clouds? No.

769
01:07:01,240 --> 01:07:02,880
HE SPEAKS IN PITJANTJATJARA

770
01:07:02,880 --> 01:07:04,920
No rain in those clouds.

771
01:07:04,920 --> 01:07:07,040
It coming.
HE SPEAKS IN PITJANTJATJARA

772
01:07:07,040 --> 01:07:09,000
Oh, the rain might come later. OK.

773
01:07:10,600 --> 01:07:12,840
That way. Yeah.

774
01:07:12,840 --> 01:07:14,640
Which way? Which way are they going?

775
01:07:14,640 --> 01:07:17,880
This way.

776
01:07:17,880 --> 01:07:19,320
Going south.

777
01:07:27,000 --> 01:07:30,080
My cherished collection of
cloud atlases

778
01:07:30,080 --> 01:07:34,440
clearly shows how Luke Howard's
system of cloud classification

779
01:07:34,440 --> 01:07:36,800
has stood the test of time.

780
01:07:38,640 --> 01:07:45,560
But since its enthusiastic reception
in 1802, it's grown and evolved.

781
01:07:45,560 --> 01:07:50,000
New species and varieties of cloud
have been added to his
original list,

782
01:07:50,000 --> 01:07:53,440
particularly in the first half
of the 20th century,

783
01:07:53,440 --> 01:07:57,120
as meteorologists continued
to observe and develop

784
01:07:57,120 --> 01:07:59,760
their understanding
of the atmosphere.

785
01:08:04,440 --> 01:08:06,280
But for some reason,

786
01:08:06,280 --> 01:08:11,800
there hasn't been a new
classification of cloud since 1953.

787
01:08:13,360 --> 01:08:17,240
For example, the pyrocumulus,
the cloud which forms

788
01:08:17,240 --> 01:08:22,400
over the rising hot air from fires,
has no official classification.

789
01:08:25,920 --> 01:08:31,360
Or the contrail, the lines of ice
particles left behind by jet planes

790
01:08:31,360 --> 01:08:34,080
flying through clear,
cold and humid air.

791
01:08:37,960 --> 01:08:41,000
And I'm curious as to whether now

792
01:08:41,000 --> 01:08:43,160
things have stopped changing.

793
01:08:43,160 --> 01:08:47,880
Do we no longer see
a new cloud formation

794
01:08:47,880 --> 01:08:52,360
and decide that it's
one worthy of classification?

795
01:08:54,040 --> 01:08:56,840
Is the book closed

796
01:08:56,840 --> 01:09:01,040
on coming up with
new classifications for clouds?

797
01:09:05,560 --> 01:09:08,440
In 2006, I received a some photos

798
01:09:08,440 --> 01:09:13,880
from a chap called Don Sanderson
living in Iowa in the States.

799
01:09:16,280 --> 01:09:20,680
He said, "I just thought we'd
send you these weird clouds

800
01:09:20,680 --> 01:09:22,280
"that we saw over our town.

801
01:09:23,960 --> 01:09:27,080
"They're just not the sort of
clouds we normally see here.

802
01:09:27,080 --> 01:09:28,720
"We're not near to mountains."

803
01:09:28,720 --> 01:09:32,400
They were very dramatic and unusual

804
01:09:32,400 --> 01:09:35,240
and they got on the local news.

805
01:09:35,240 --> 01:09:36,880
I thought I was going to see

806
01:09:36,880 --> 01:09:39,520
alien spaceships come down
through the clouds.

807
01:09:39,520 --> 01:09:42,760
Some say it looked like a scene
from the movie, Independence Day.

808
01:09:42,760 --> 01:09:45,600
Others had more
down-to-earth descriptions.

809
01:09:45,600 --> 01:09:48,400
It almost reminded me of
ocean waves rolling in.

810
01:09:48,400 --> 01:09:51,680
I thought it looked like
the nice frothy cream on a latte.

811
01:09:51,680 --> 01:09:54,320
In case you missed all
the excitement this morning,

812
01:09:54,320 --> 01:09:56,640
these clouds
were the talk of the town.

813
01:09:56,640 --> 01:10:00,400
This nameless weather phenomenon
drew people outdoors.

814
01:10:00,400 --> 01:10:01,840
My sister rang and woke me up,

815
01:10:01,840 --> 01:10:04,200
and said I had to come
outside to see the clouds.

816
01:10:04,200 --> 01:10:07,680
And most enjoyed Mother Nature's
free entertainment.

817
01:10:07,680 --> 01:10:10,160
Just making sure Independence Day
wasn't happening again.

818
01:10:10,160 --> 01:10:11,920
Don't worry, sci-fi fans,

819
01:10:11,920 --> 01:10:15,240
meteorologists say it's not
the end of the world.

820
01:10:16,880 --> 01:10:20,200
The local weathermen said
they weren't really sure

821
01:10:20,200 --> 01:10:22,320
what this cloud would be called.

822
01:10:22,320 --> 01:10:26,600
It was in the back of my mind,
and then I started getting

823
01:10:26,600 --> 01:10:31,440
other photographs sent in
from members around the world.

824
01:10:37,000 --> 01:10:40,480
These clouds seem to form when
a cloud layer in very stable air,

825
01:10:40,480 --> 01:10:45,520
is subjected to the kind of
intense atmospheric waves

826
01:10:45,520 --> 01:10:49,200
that you might find
around mountainous regions.

827
01:11:00,040 --> 01:11:04,400
And every now and then, one of these
would jump out at me as being,

828
01:11:04,400 --> 01:11:07,640
"Oh, there's another example
of that weird cloud."

829
01:11:18,760 --> 01:11:21,960
But then as more and more of
these things have come in,

830
01:11:21,960 --> 01:11:28,160
it strikes me that there's no
real existing classification

831
01:11:28,160 --> 01:11:31,000
that they neatly fit within.

832
01:11:31,000 --> 01:11:35,080
They're a little bit like
an undulatus cloud,

833
01:11:35,080 --> 01:11:39,520
which means wave-like. It's from
the Latin for undular - wave.

834
01:11:39,520 --> 01:11:43,680
But they're less regular than
you would tend to see in
undulatus cloud.

835
01:11:43,680 --> 01:11:47,480
And it's also a little bit,
has some appearance

836
01:11:47,480 --> 01:11:50,080
that's a bit like
a lenticularis cloud.

837
01:11:50,080 --> 01:11:55,120
Those are rather smooth and globby,

838
01:11:55,120 --> 01:11:59,040
usually in the shape of
a lens or an almond.

839
01:11:59,040 --> 01:12:02,400
Then there's also a little bit
of the mamma cloud to them

840
01:12:02,400 --> 01:12:05,920
which is a particularly
dramatic cloud formation

841
01:12:05,920 --> 01:12:10,280
that has these pouches,
after the Latin for udders.

842
01:12:12,240 --> 01:12:16,680
It really kind of can be quite
extraordinary, that cloud type.

843
01:12:16,680 --> 01:12:21,640
And this formation has a bit of
all three of those in my mind.

844
01:12:21,640 --> 01:12:24,920
And I thought, well maybe...

845
01:12:24,920 --> 01:12:29,520
Maybe if it doesn't fit into the
existing cloud classifications,

846
01:12:29,520 --> 01:12:34,800
does that mean that we just
can't have a name for this cloud?

847
01:12:34,800 --> 01:12:39,200
Or is there an argument to say that
we should add a new classification?

848
01:12:39,200 --> 01:12:44,560
And so, I've decided the best thing
is to prepare my case,

849
01:12:44,560 --> 01:12:48,360
to prepare the argument as to why
this should be a new classification.

850
01:12:48,360 --> 01:12:55,600
What I'm hoping is that I can
persuade a group of meteorologists

851
01:12:55,600 --> 01:13:02,840
to get together and hear my case
for this as a new classification.

852
01:13:02,840 --> 01:13:06,200
But I don't know, there's potential
that I might stand up

853
01:13:06,200 --> 01:13:09,120
in front of these
learned meteorologists,

854
01:13:09,120 --> 01:13:14,800
and just...well, just look
like a bit of a fool!

855
01:13:14,800 --> 01:13:17,440
If I get it wrong, I could
look like a bit of a fool.

856
01:13:17,440 --> 01:13:19,200
If they say, "What do you mean?

857
01:13:19,200 --> 01:13:22,120
"That's so obviously
a so-and-so cloud."

858
01:13:22,120 --> 01:13:25,080
That could all be a bit
embarrassing.

859
01:13:29,000 --> 01:13:32,080
I've even given the new cloud
a name,

860
01:13:32,080 --> 01:13:35,520
asperatus, Latin for roughened-up.

861
01:13:37,560 --> 01:13:42,640
I'm sending the idea to the renowned
Royal Meteorological Society.

862
01:13:42,640 --> 01:13:46,280
I don't know whether they'll invite
me to talk further about the cloud,

863
01:13:46,280 --> 01:13:49,520
but I suppose that's
up to fate and the Gods.

864
01:13:57,440 --> 01:14:00,280
There are a whole number of
different reasons why

865
01:14:00,280 --> 01:14:02,520
people might contemplate the clouds.

866
01:14:02,520 --> 01:14:07,800
Perhaps because they're
landscape artists or glider pilots.

867
01:14:10,440 --> 01:14:14,280
But the cloudspotter I'm going to
meet now, Craig Hamilton-Parker,

868
01:14:14,280 --> 01:14:18,160
contemplates them for
an entirely different reason.

869
01:14:21,600 --> 01:14:25,600
That's because he's a cloud psychic.

870
01:14:31,200 --> 01:14:34,640
Craig, hi. Nice to meet you.
Nice to meet you too.

871
01:14:34,640 --> 01:14:36,480
How are you doing? Not bad.

872
01:14:36,480 --> 01:14:41,360
Good. You're doing all right too.
I should know that, being a psychic!

873
01:14:41,360 --> 01:14:44,520
So what is it that you do
exactly with clouds?

874
01:14:44,520 --> 01:14:46,200
It's called aeromancy.

875
01:14:47,800 --> 01:14:49,720
Mancies are like divinations.

876
01:14:49,720 --> 01:14:53,360
You can get geo-mancy,
reading the earth.

877
01:14:53,360 --> 01:14:59,200
I know a friend who reads dirty
plates and interprets the reading
from the dirty stains on the plate.

878
01:14:59,200 --> 01:15:01,040
So we can read anything like that.

879
01:15:01,040 --> 01:15:05,320
But I think that clouds are such
a beautiful, ephemeral,
effulgent sort of thing

880
01:15:05,320 --> 01:15:09,360
that they just lend themselves
to some form of heavenly,

881
01:15:09,360 --> 01:15:12,760
spiritual type of exploration.

882
01:15:12,760 --> 01:15:17,480
I mean, Elvis Presley, you know,
I believe he looked at the clouds

883
01:15:17,480 --> 01:15:19,640
and actually foresaw his own death,

884
01:15:19,640 --> 01:15:23,880
he saw some horrible picture in the
clouds and got quite upset about it.

885
01:15:33,920 --> 01:15:37,160
I'm keen for Craig
to read my fortune.

886
01:15:37,160 --> 01:15:40,240
How does it work then,
practically, if we're gonna do this?

887
01:15:40,240 --> 01:15:43,280
Are you asking me to see shapes,
or are you seeing shapes?

888
01:15:43,280 --> 01:15:46,520
If I can see... I'll have a look at
the clouds that we've got around.

889
01:15:46,520 --> 01:15:49,840
We've got some of those,
I guess they're cumulus clouds.

890
01:15:49,840 --> 01:15:53,640
Some of the pictures, I kind of feel
they're like motherly faces,

891
01:15:53,640 --> 01:15:55,960
they look like
happy mum looks to them,

892
01:15:55,960 --> 01:15:59,760
so could I say that you're
a person that has always been,

893
01:15:59,760 --> 01:16:01,760
through your life,
very close to Mum?

894
01:16:01,760 --> 01:16:04,840
Er... I suppose so, yes.

895
01:16:04,840 --> 01:16:08,680
And I would say very protective
to anything connected with family.

896
01:16:08,680 --> 01:16:13,360
Talking of family, we're going to,
we've got another child on the way.

897
01:16:13,360 --> 01:16:17,000
Oh, right, so that's... Are you
getting a boy, or a girl feel?

898
01:16:17,000 --> 01:16:20,280
You've got two already? I've got
one already, I've got a girl.

899
01:16:20,280 --> 01:16:23,120
I've got a feeling it's
going to be another girl.

900
01:16:23,120 --> 01:16:27,080
Really? And another question
I had, do you do this
in terms of questions?

901
01:16:27,080 --> 01:16:29,920
Yes, you can do, because
obviously, what you can do is,

902
01:16:29,920 --> 01:16:33,480
you can say a question and of course,
my unconscious will project it.

903
01:16:33,480 --> 01:16:37,920
It's a way of connecting
to the intuitive unconscious...

904
01:16:40,080 --> 01:16:43,640
I'm thinking of, er, presenting

905
01:16:43,640 --> 01:16:48,080
to some eminent meteorologists

906
01:16:48,080 --> 01:16:54,440
that we should come up with
a new categorisation of cloud.

907
01:16:54,440 --> 01:17:00,800
There's a type of cloud which
looks like you're underwater, and
you've got the waves of the surface

908
01:17:00,800 --> 01:17:08,400
of the water that you're looking up
at, and there's no Latin
or other name

909
01:17:08,400 --> 01:17:09,680
for this type of cloud.

910
01:17:09,680 --> 01:17:14,680
But I might be laughed out of
the room before we can get there.
No, it's worth putting this forward.

911
01:17:14,680 --> 01:17:18,560
You've seen a hole in the clouds,
as it were, that needs patching up!

912
01:17:18,560 --> 01:17:21,760
But before you can
say "James Randi,"

913
01:17:21,760 --> 01:17:25,640
Craig spots a cloud that
seems to sum it all up.

914
01:17:25,640 --> 01:17:28,120
I see a sort of like

915
01:17:28,120 --> 01:17:30,920
a Mickey Mouse sort of
laughing sort of face.

916
01:17:30,920 --> 01:17:34,400
Right, yeah, yeah.

917
01:17:34,400 --> 01:17:37,840
That face looks like
it's someone being mocked,

918
01:17:37,840 --> 01:17:42,760
and I think you have a fear of
people not taking you seriously. Ah.

919
01:17:42,760 --> 01:17:47,920
Erm, you've walked into the
academic world and they
look at you as, "Who's this guy?"

920
01:17:47,920 --> 01:17:52,080
You know? And you've got
to get over this fear of

921
01:17:52,080 --> 01:17:53,760
people not taking you seriously.

922
01:17:53,760 --> 01:17:56,760
You've got to just be a lot
more upfront about what you do.

923
01:17:56,760 --> 01:17:59,400
You're as big an expert
as anybody else.

924
01:17:59,400 --> 01:18:03,240
That's the way you've got
to storm the world and take
the future by hand.

925
01:18:03,240 --> 01:18:05,520
That's what the
clouds are saying to us.

926
01:18:07,600 --> 01:18:11,040
Say what you believe in
and don't worry about what

927
01:18:11,040 --> 01:18:14,040
the academics keep saying,
that it should be this or that.

928
01:18:14,040 --> 01:18:19,480
So the clouds are saying, "Be bold
with your love of clouds?" "Be bold
with your love of clouds," yes.

929
01:18:19,480 --> 01:18:21,320
THEY LAUGH

930
01:18:22,400 --> 01:18:24,760
"Be bold with my love of clouds."

931
01:18:24,760 --> 01:18:28,200
I like that.

932
01:18:28,200 --> 01:18:31,080
And whether or not you
believe that the clouds can be

933
01:18:31,080 --> 01:18:36,760
the messengers of one's fortune,
at the end of the day, it's just
another way of appreciating them.

934
01:18:36,760 --> 01:18:39,400
Another way to be
inspired by the sky.

935
01:18:47,960 --> 01:18:51,600
Hello, my name is John Pena,
I'm 27 years old and

936
01:18:51,600 --> 01:18:54,520
I currently
live in Colombia, in South America.

937
01:18:54,520 --> 01:19:00,120
And so I thought I would
begin by showing a video I
made of me racing a cloud.

938
01:19:03,360 --> 01:19:06,440
And so I was really interested
in this idea of competing with

939
01:19:06,440 --> 01:19:11,800
something that not only has no idea
we're competing, but that has no
reason to ever compete with a human.

940
01:19:15,560 --> 01:19:18,240
In a world where there's
so much division,

941
01:19:18,240 --> 01:19:22,240
it's refreshing to be reminded that
these are some things
we share in common,

942
01:19:22,240 --> 01:19:28,960
genetically ingrained into our
bodies, into our retina, this
blue sky, the landscape and clouds.

943
01:19:33,560 --> 01:19:35,480
Well, guess what?

944
01:19:35,480 --> 01:19:41,960
I've been invited
by the Royal Meteorological Society
to give a talk to a panel of experts

945
01:19:41,960 --> 01:19:45,200
about my proposal for a new
classification of cloud.

946
01:19:46,840 --> 01:19:48,880
I'm a bit nervous, actually.

947
01:19:48,880 --> 01:19:51,840
The Royal Meteorological
Society is one of

948
01:19:51,840 --> 01:19:55,760
the most respected meteorological
societies in the world.

949
01:19:55,760 --> 01:20:02,320
And I've come with my little
portfolio of members' photographs
of this type of cloud, to present

950
01:20:02,320 --> 01:20:09,000
to a panel of meteorologists and
persuade them that it should
be a new classification.

951
01:20:09,000 --> 01:20:13,680
There's not a cloud in
the sky today,
which I'm hoping's not a bad sign.

952
01:20:13,680 --> 01:20:18,840
I'm feeling like a bit, as I say,
a bit nervous and I hope I'm
not going to make a fool of myself.

953
01:20:45,360 --> 01:20:48,760
Mr Pretor-Pinney? Yes.
Professor Hardaker will see you now.

954
01:20:48,760 --> 01:20:51,840
Great, thank you. Would
you like to come upstairs? OK.

955
01:20:57,120 --> 01:21:03,120
Er, so I thought... Let me just
explain what this is about, maybe.

956
01:21:03,120 --> 01:21:08,120
I, er, you know I've got the Cloud
Appreciation Society, and people

957
01:21:08,120 --> 01:21:14,360
send in photographs from all around
the world of clouds that they like.

958
01:21:17,000 --> 01:21:21,920
I noticed... I noticed
a few years ago, there were

959
01:21:21,920 --> 01:21:25,760
one or two cloud types that I was
having some difficulty classifying.

960
01:21:26,600 --> 01:21:32,680
..that were like that were these
ones, erm, from Cedar Rapids, in
Iowa, in the States.

961
01:21:32,680 --> 01:21:39,360
I was looking at it and I was
thinking, "What type of cloud
is this?" Here's another one.

962
01:21:39,360 --> 01:21:42,400
A very kind of choppy, mixed

963
01:21:42,400 --> 01:21:45,360
way in which the
undulations are appearing.

964
01:21:45,360 --> 01:21:47,840
Do we know the dates that
they were taken, Gary?

965
01:21:47,840 --> 01:21:51,480
Yes, they seem to be
mid-to-late summer. OK.

966
01:21:51,480 --> 01:21:55,400
And then I saw some from
New Zealand...

967
01:21:55,400 --> 01:21:57,160
Gosh, that's pretty dramatic.

968
01:21:57,160 --> 01:21:58,680
I know.

969
01:21:58,680 --> 01:22:02,560
It's one that, you know, exists at
different levels and
I would have said

970
01:22:02,560 --> 01:22:08,640
it would be a variety that
would exist at strato-cumulus
and alto-cumulus levels.

971
01:22:08,640 --> 01:22:14,440
I'd like to see some independent
corroboration of the pictures from
two observers' standpoints, you know?

972
01:22:14,440 --> 01:22:19,400
I've got this
photograph from several
different people sending it in.

973
01:22:19,400 --> 01:22:26,960
And then these ones in New Zealand
that were sent in by two independent
people, looking very, very similar.

974
01:22:26,960 --> 01:22:31,240
At a similar time of day and
they both... So you've got
independent corroboration?

975
01:22:31,240 --> 01:22:34,040
I've got two independent
people photographing that.

976
01:22:34,040 --> 01:22:37,480
And many independent people
photographing that one.

977
01:22:37,480 --> 01:22:42,560
I would like to see a bit more
information about when and where
the pictures were taken, so

978
01:22:42,560 --> 01:22:47,840
that we can start to study
the meteorological situation, and
to get an idea of what's happening

979
01:22:47,840 --> 01:22:51,680
in the atmosphere to create
some of these spectacular clouds.

980
01:22:51,680 --> 01:22:54,760
I'd like to see more evidence of
the synoptic situation

981
01:22:54,760 --> 01:22:59,080
so that's
what the set-up of the atmosphere
was like at that particular time.

982
01:22:59,080 --> 01:23:00,880
Was it warm, was it cold?

983
01:23:00,880 --> 01:23:05,480
I think it's certainly worth an
opportunity to see if we
can take this forward.

984
01:23:05,480 --> 01:23:09,000
There seems to be something,
there seems to be something there.

985
01:23:09,000 --> 01:23:12,200
The World Meteorological
Organisation is the place to go

986
01:23:12,200 --> 01:23:15,680
for new classifications to be
recognised.

987
01:23:15,680 --> 01:23:21,280
If we're going to make a case, we're
going to have to put a bit more
about the meteorology,

988
01:23:21,280 --> 01:23:26,560
the weather conditions that were
happening when these pictures were
taken, which we can help you with.

989
01:23:26,560 --> 01:23:32,120
Together, we've got the basis
of a case that we can take forward,
and we'd be happy to help.

990
01:23:32,120 --> 01:23:36,800
Let's push it forward and see if we
can just nudge open that gate of

991
01:23:36,800 --> 01:23:40,480
the World Meteorological
Organisation, and
let's see how they respond.

992
01:23:54,040 --> 01:23:58,280
I don't think that could have gone
better. That was... That was great.

993
01:23:58,280 --> 01:24:06,040
They were very, very positive about
the whole idea of a new variety of
cloud, and so I'm going to get

994
01:24:06,040 --> 01:24:10,280
some details together and
we can take it forward,
by the sounds of it.

995
01:24:10,280 --> 01:24:14,000
Today, the Royal Meteorological
Society, tomorrow, the World...

996
01:24:14,000 --> 01:24:16,280
Meteorological Organisation.

997
01:24:22,720 --> 01:24:30,400
But before I get too carried away,
it's important to remind myself
what it means to be a cloudspotter.

998
01:24:30,400 --> 01:24:33,440
It's something that
doesn't need a big fanfare.

999
01:24:33,440 --> 01:24:36,280
It's about stopping

1000
01:24:36,280 --> 01:24:42,600
and taking a breather from whatever
it is you're doing and looking up.

1001
01:24:42,600 --> 01:24:47,440
It's an important part of my
everyday life, because having

1002
01:24:47,440 --> 01:24:52,720
my head in the clouds, ironically,
is a grounding experience.

1003
01:25:00,680 --> 01:25:06,000
Hi, my name is Donna Levinstone. I am
an artist living in New York City.

1004
01:25:06,000 --> 01:25:11,960
I painted this drawing using pastels.
It's called September 11th, 2001.

1005
01:25:11,960 --> 01:25:19,560
Rather than a portrait of the twin
towers, it's really a very emotional
piece that represents the cloud,

1006
01:25:19,560 --> 01:25:25,640
which really became more of a
peaceful resting place for thousands
of people that vanished on 9/11.

1007
01:25:25,640 --> 01:25:28,320
It was a natural thing
for me to do this drawing,

1008
01:25:28,320 --> 01:25:33,440
because clouds were something
that have been a very important
part of my work for 20 years.

1009
01:25:33,440 --> 01:25:38,680
And unfortunately, even though this
was the result of such a disaster,

1010
01:25:38,680 --> 01:25:45,960
I actually found some beauty
in the cloud that really provided
a peaceful home for these people.

1011
01:25:54,080 --> 01:25:58,560
We can make the clouds our
friends and our ambassadors of love,

1012
01:25:58,560 --> 01:26:00,400
peace and friendship,

1013
01:26:00,400 --> 01:26:03,640
because they pass as nations,
they pass as oceans,

1014
01:26:03,640 --> 01:26:06,680
they pass as
continents, without any borders.

1015
01:26:06,680 --> 01:26:10,720
So we can make the clouds
our best, best friends.

1016
01:26:15,000 --> 01:26:19,080
The manifesto of
the Cloud Appreciation Society

1017
01:26:19,080 --> 01:26:26,000
asks you to, "Look up, marvel at
the ephemeral beauty, and live life
with your head in the clouds."

1018
01:26:26,000 --> 01:26:30,840
A philosophy inspired
by Shelley's poem, The Cloud.

1019
01:26:32,480 --> 01:26:36,720
"I am the daughter of Earth and water
and the nursling of the sky

1020
01:26:36,720 --> 01:26:40,000
"I pass through the pores of
the ocean and shores

1021
01:26:40,000 --> 01:26:44,440
"I change but I cannot die

1022
01:26:44,440 --> 01:26:47,680
"For after the rain when with
never a stain

1023
01:26:47,680 --> 01:26:49,520
"The pavilion of heaven is bare

1024
01:26:49,720 --> 01:26:52,760
"And the winds and sunbeams
with their convex gleams

1025
01:26:52,760 --> 01:26:55,440
"Build up the blue dome of air

1026
01:26:56,440 --> 01:27:01,680
"I silently laugh at my own cenotaph
and out of the caverns of rain

1027
01:27:01,680 --> 01:27:04,160
"Like a child from the womb

1028
01:27:04,160 --> 01:27:05,960
"Like a ghost from the tomb

1029
01:27:07,600 --> 01:27:09,760
"I arise and unbuild it again."

1030
01:27:30,160 --> 01:27:31,960
# And when it rain it would
all turn...

1031
01:27:31,960 --> 01:27:33,520
# They were beautiful

1032
01:27:33,520 --> 01:27:36,480
# The most beautiful skies
as a matter of fact

1033
01:27:36,480 --> 01:27:41,560
# The sunsets were purple and
red and yellow

1034
01:27:41,560 --> 01:27:45,320
# And on fire and the clouds
would catch the colours everywhere

1035
01:27:45,320 --> 01:27:46,400
# That's...

1036
01:27:46,400 --> 01:27:49,040
# It's neat because I used to
look at them all the time

1037
01:27:49,040 --> 01:27:53,000
# You don't see that -
big clouds little fluffy clouds

1038
01:27:53,000 --> 01:27:58,400
# Lil-lil-lil-lil-lil-lil-lil-lil-lil

1039
01:27:58,400 --> 01:27:59,400
# Little fluffy clouds... #