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Clouds: How to Identify Nature’s Most Fleeting Forms
A one-of-a-kind illustrated guide to clouds, cloud formations, and the artists who painted them
The mystery of clouds has captivated scientists and artists alike. This unique book shows you how to use the meteorological techniques of nephology to identify these elusive and transmutable shapes. It curates, classifies, and measures every species—including those recently discovered—considering the height, size, texture, arrangement, modifications, and movement of their many shifting forms. Clouds blends a lively and engaging narrative by one of today’s leading meteorologists with an essay on historic cloud art, and includes a wealth of breathtaking cloud studies by some of the greatest artists ever to look skyward.
Presents a “taxonomic” approach to identification, applying the basic laws of geometry to quantify and measure clouds and cloud formationsShowcases artists who painted clouds from a scientific viewpoint, such as John Constable, Frederic Edwin Church, J.M.W. Turner, and Caspar David FriedrichTells the stories of the physicists and painters who have attempted to record the many different incarnations of cloudsExplains the physics of clouds, from the basic constituents of Earth’s atmosphere to cloud formation and dissipation, the colors and shades of clouds, the development of precipitation, and the timescale evolution of cloudsDiscusses the classification and naming of cloudsServes as a user-friendly reference guide to low, midlevel, and high cloud speciesIncludes charts, infographics, and a glossary of terms
The mystery of clouds has captivated scientists and artists alike. This unique book shows you how to use the meteorological techniques of nephology to identify these elusive and transmutable shapes. It curates, classifies, and measures every species—including those recently discovered—considering the height, size, texture, arrangement, modifications, and movement of their many shifting forms. Clouds blends a lively and engaging narrative by one of today’s leading meteorologists with an essay on historic cloud art, and includes a wealth of breathtaking cloud studies by some of the greatest artists ever to look skyward.
Presents a “taxonomic” approach to identification, applying the basic laws of geometry to quantify and measure clouds and cloud formationsShowcases artists who painted clouds from a scientific viewpoint, such as John Constable, Frederic Edwin Church, J.M.W. Turner, and Caspar David FriedrichTells the stories of the physicists and painters who have attempted to record the many different incarnations of cloudsExplains the physics of clouds, from the basic constituents of Earth’s atmosphere to cloud formation and dissipation, the colors and shades of clouds, the development of precipitation, and the timescale evolution of cloudsDiscusses the classification and naming of cloudsServes as a user-friendly reference guide to low, midlevel, and high cloud speciesIncludes charts, infographics, and a glossary of terms
Kindle Edition
Published April 22, 2025
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
February 10, 2026
Who knew clouds are so complex and interesting? A lovely book that combines scientific explanations, short layperson explanations and analogies, humour, and beautiful paintings of clouds by a range of well-known (mostly European) artists. The descriptions and paintings are very northern hemisphere focussed. It would have been good to have more descriptions from the southern hemisphere and tropical areas. For example, the artist, Segar Passi, is renowned for his meticulously detailed and accurate paintings of cloud formations at different seasons in the Torres Strait (the strait between Queensland in Australia and Papua New Guinea).
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August 12, 2025short review for the wall street journal here: https://www.wsj.com/arts-culture/book...
February 25, 2026
Needs 2x more images and pictures to compensate for the technical writing
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews