Send in the Clouds!

Cloud watching is contagious--just look at a few of the photos friends, family, and acquaintances are sending me in the wake of the the publication of my book, A Sideways Look at Clouds. It's heartwarming to know more people are taking the time to look up at the skies (and ceilings). Thank you for sharing your photos with me. 

These stratocumulus beauties--the silver lining of an unsuccessful duck-hunting trip--were captured over Davis, North Carolina.  Photo by Matthew Mudd.

From a  friend visiting Boston this week, I received these heavenly cumulus clouds from the ceiling  of the Isabella Stewart Gardener Museum. So many paintings use clouds to where gods, goddesses, and cupids cavort. This is the "Coronation of Hebe" by 16th-century painter Paolo Veronese.  Hebe is the Greek goddess of youth and cupbearer to the gods of Mt. Olympus. Nice work if you can get it!      Photo by Anne Kilgannon. 

Here is  a detail of the "Coronation of Hebe" painted long before we  knew clouds could not support the weight of one (not to mention five) bodies for a cozy celebration. 

And here, a cirrus fibratus cloud from Vashon Island, WA. It's incredible what forms ice takes in our atmosphere. Photo by Richard Rogers, who named this cloud an "Angel Feather" and has written a book called 100 Words for Rain. Watch a fun video here to learn some of these PNW insider names.  

Thanks to Emma Amiad of Vashon Island for this photo (and 26 more!), taken near Yakima, WA. When you have a big unobstructed view of the horizon and a flotilla of cumulus humilis and cumulus fractus clouds, it's time for some mind bending. The clouds on the horizon are not lower that the clouds at the top of the photograph. All the gray bases of these clouds are at the same altitude. Yessiree. Each of these clouds formed from rising moist, warm air, which contains invisible water vapor. When that air reaches a certain altitude/temperature, the water vapor cools and condenses into visible water droplets--our cloud. That altitude is known as the "condensation level." 

Emma Amiad also sent in this photo of low stratocumulus clouds over Wyoming's Teton Range. Aren't the three window-like holes in the cloud layer striking?  Funny how the lack of cloud is what makes this photo so dynamic. 

Thank you Matt, Anne, Richard, and Emma. 

"Sideways" on Tour

As if on cue, the clouds returned to the Pacific Northwest as Mountaineers Books' released my new book, A Sideways Look at Clouds. The clouds never do anything on cue, so their timing is notable here. (Even stranger, Hurricane Maria made landfall as I was starting my book tour).

The clouds have been dramatic this fall and I've been on the road encouraging readers to look up and enjoy the every-changing drama in the skies at bookstores and other venues in Olympia, Seattle, Bellingham, Marysville, Kirkland, Portland, and Washington, DC. (Check out my events calendar for upcoming talks and book signings).

More than talking about my book and sharing some of my photos of the spectacular clouds we have in the Pacific Northwest, I've loved answering their questions about clouds: How exactly does it rain? When is a cloud a "cloud" and when do you call them "clouds?" Why do we have so many clouds here? What's the deal with high and low pressure? Are clouds changing? I am going to create a FAQs page to answer all of these and more.

I've also loved hearing people's stories about clouds. Here is one story (handwritten) and delivered to me at the 2017 Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association (PNBA) trade show by Mary Anne Fraser, manager of Brilliant Moon books in Shelton.

"100 years ago, when I'd just turned twelve, I spent met hard-earned babysitting wages on a small Kodak camera. Within an hour the complete roll was filled and my mom (knowing how excited I'd been about this long-awaited purchase) offered to take the roll to our local "Pay and Save" to have my photos developed.

The week-long wait was finally over and I ran to the car to discover what my new hobby had delivered. Before I could open the obviously already opened packet, my mom said to me in a rather disappointed voice: "They're all clouds."

I looked at her, waiting for the rest of the observation ("They're beautiful." "I love the one that looks like an otter." "What an artist's eye you have.") but, alas, that was the sum total of her opinion.

I, on the other hand, was thrilled. Yes, they WERE all clouds."

While in Portland, I visited KATU-TV to talk with Helen Raptis on "AMNW" and Tra'Renee Chambers on "Afternoon Live" and also with Jefferson Smith, host of "XRAY in the Morning" (skip to 1:54:48) before my talk at Powell's on Hawthorne

After my interview on "Afternoon Live," the on-set photographer, Mark Plut, showed me photographs of his two recent paintings--of clouds!  "I too am fascinated by clouds," Mark told me, "especially how to paint them." In the first painting, Mark as painted a sky washed with what look like cirrostratus clouds to me. In the second painting, the landscape is transformed by more dynamic cumulus and altocumulus clouds. What a difference, eh? Thank you, Mark!

And because you can never have too many clouds--or paintings of clouds--in the Pacific Northwest, I went on a cloud hunt at the Portland Museum of Art. What a bonanza of clouds! Here is a gallery of a few of my favorites. 

Oskar Kokoschka/Tuileries Gardens, Paris; George Inness/Apezzo Pass, Titian's House; Joe Goode/Torn Cloud Painting; Robert Henri/Rue de Rennes; Robert Goonough/Grey Development; N.C. Wyeth/Rip Van Winkle, endpaper illustration; [forgot to photograph the label of the skyscrapers in the clouds--ooops]; George Michel/Landscape; ibid/detail of cloud

REMEMBER....EARTH WITHOUT ART is JUST "EH"

Speaking of...I'll be signing books at the 37th Annual  Wild Arts Festival at Montgomery Park in Portland, OR. The festival runs November 18-19 and benefits the fabulous Audubon Society of Portland. I'll be there Sunday noon-4 p.m. along with 36 other authors (and more than 200 artists) whose work is inspired by nature.

Sideways Plus #2: +Cloud+

This second "Sideways Plus" post offers an excerpt from "Cloud," the second chapter of my new book, A Sideways Look at Clouds, and illustrations and resources related to the chapter.

"I recognized a cloud when I saw one of course, but I couldn't explain what made a cloud a cloud and not something else, such s smoke, haze, steam, or mist. I knew clouds were made of water and that they floated, but so did icebergs. What kind of water were clouds made of? Was it plain old water--H20--or something more special? Was fog a cloud? What were the defining features of a cloud?."

"From twelve different sources, I copied out twelve different definitions of "cloud." I marked the words that appeared in at least three of the definitions. Ten key words emerged: visible, mass, water, droplets, ice, crystals, suspended, atmosphere, above, earth. By adding a few prepositions and articles, I created a new definition: 'A cloud is a visible mass of water droplets or ice crystals suspended in the atmosphere above the earth.'...Each word felt like a stepping-stone--no, more like a door. A door I could open. A door I could wanter through to find my way into the clouds."

The Danger Zone: Click here for information on the free, two-hour SkyWarn Weather Spotter Training offered by National Weather Service (NWS) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Local classroom training and online training are offered. Click here to hear the song that accompanied the time-lapse sequences of "menacing" clouds shown during my training course. The poor clouds! 

Luke Howard (1772-1864). This man brought order to the chaos of the skies when he introduced the Latin names for the clouds in 1802.

Order a copy of The Invention of Clouds: How an Amateur Meteorologist Forged the Language of the Skies, by Richard Hamblyn. This story of Luke Howard (a chemist and lifelong cloud watcher) answers the question: Why did it take so long to name the clouds? 

Get lost in the clouds by following this link to the International Cloud Atlas. This new digital edition was released in March 2017 by the World Meteorological Organization and is the gold standard for professional meteorologists, for those working in aeronautical and maritime environments, and for the amateur cloud-watcher.

The Cloud Appreciation Society is a web-based organization for cloud lovers around the world. On blue-sky days, you can find all the clouds (photos, poems, science, history) you'd ever want here. Become member and get a cloud a day in your inbox. 

My three go-to books for identifying clouds:

Next Sideways Plus post will feature the  "Visible" chapter. 

Sideways Plus #1: +Prologue+

This is the first of my "Plus" posts I'll be sharing over the next few months. Each weekly post will feature a brief excerpt from each chapter of my just-published natural history-memoir, A Sideways Look at Clouds...PLUS...illustrations and links to resources to enhance your reading. 

Why am I doing this? Because my book is not a field guide nor does it have a set glossy photographs of the clouds and places I discuss in my book. And because I have so very many photographs of the the clouds to show you to make you love the clouds even more.

Here is the first Plus post. Hope you enjoy this as an accompaniment (and not a Spark-Notes-like substitute for my book). 

Prologue: A Guide to the Sky

"I did not expect to be swept off my feet by clouds, although I should have seen it coming a few years earlier, on the day I began house hunting in the Pacific Northwest. My family and I had been living in sunny, often scorching Southern California for five years...One glorious September afternoon I flew into Seattle, rented a car, and headed south on Interstate 5 toward Olympia. Rounding a curve, I noticed a massive pile-up of white clouds billowing up from the horizon. I squeezed the steering wheel, leaned into the windshield for a bigger view, and said out loud and loudly, "I've missed you guys!"

from Page 11: "How could I turn my back on these clouds and the invitation to look up?" This is the poster that inspired me to write my book. Want your own Guide to the Sky? Click here to order this brand new edition of the poster from the photographer/author Art Rangno.

"Mackerel Skies" (Altocumulus perlucidus)

"Mare's Tails" (Cirrus uncinus)

"Thunderhead" (Cumulonimbus)