SUMMER LIVING:Instead of complaining about our dull summer, why not join the Cloud Appreciation Society, and learn to love the endless shades of grey, asks GRACE WYNNE-JONES

CLOUDS OFTEN prompt complaint, but they also have many devoted admirers. Without them “life would be very dull”, declares Gavin Pretor-Pinney. “We would miss the variety and drama they bring to the sky and the way they give three-dimensional architecture to the atmosphere.”

He founded the Cloud Appreciation Society in 2005 because he felt somebody needed to stand up for “one of the most poetic parts of nature”.

The society now has more than 18,000 members worldwide and 181 of them are Irish. Cloud art, chat, poetry and photos are amongst its website’s offerings.

Clouds, it seems, come in numerous and sometimes glorious varieties, and many are not connected with rain. “People commonly talk about good weather or cloudy weather and that is a false distinction,” Pretor-Pinney says firmly. “Fair weather clouds are like balls of cotton wool. They play a starring role on summer days.”

Cirrus clouds also often add a painterly touch to sunny skies. They are high and wispy like “light brush strokes”.

Pretor-Pinney is not too keen on the Nimbostratus, which is a “thick wet blanket across the whole sky” that brings prolonged drizzly rain. “That is just one of them. Let’s not write them all off.”

He finds clouds hugely pleasing because “they are in constant flux. I like the fact that we all have a good view of them.” He is also convinced that clouds are good for our souls. “I think of it as meteorological meditation.”

Making time for clouds is clearly part of a more general personal philosophy. One of Pretor-Pinney’s two daughters even has a cloud middle name. Flora Cirrus is three-and-a-half and is already a cloud fan who’s “good at spotting different types”.

“All children go through a stage when they become aware of and become interested in clouds,” he adds.

“The problem is when we become adults the early interest in clouds get buried in complaint. Everyone has buried within them an early affection for them. The society has been about reawakening that.”

The organisation began when a friend asked him to talk about clouds at a literary festival. He decided he would give the talk an intriguing name and called it, “the inaugural lecture of the Cloud Appreciation Society”.

It was a joke, but people began to ask how to join the society, so he launched the website. Membership costs £4 (€4.70) and includes a personalised certificate and badge.

Many of the society’s members “collect” clouds by photographing or noting interesting sightings. Damien Molloy, who lives in Rathfarnham, Co Dublin, says he could “talk about clouds all day”.

Molloy joined the society two years ago after hearing about it on the radio. He is chairman of the Dublin Gliding Club and loves flying beside clouds.

“A cloud to me signifies energy and beauty . . . it is constantly changing,” he says enthusiastically.

He admits that some people think he’s crazy to like clouds so much because when they see them “they think of rain”. He has learned how to “read” clouds to know about the weather but he also loves seeing shapes in them.

“If there are no clouds, it is a featureless sky . . . they break the monotony,” Molloy says. “I have the privilege of spending a lot of time right up beside clouds, and I respect and admire them. I have thousands of pictures of clouds. Each one is different.”

Pretor-Pinney believes that his own cloud-gazing has helped him to discover a new cloud variety. Called “asperatus”, it looks like the surface of a choppy sea viewed from below. With the help of the Royal Meteorological Society, he plans to present it to the World Meteorological Organisation in Geneva later this year. It could be the first addition to cloud classification in 55 years.

He even travelled to Australia to see the Morning Glory cloud in Northern Queensland. “It’s a cloud that’s a long tube, sometimes longer than Britain, which forms inside a travelling wave of air. Glider pilots surf this wave of air.”

So, how to go about cloud-spotting? “You have got to be receptive,” Pretor-Pinney advises. And you need to be “prepared to stop whatever you are doing if something interesting appears”.

Keen cloud-spotters also tend to have digital cameras to hand. Many enjoy identifying different clouds types, but “finding shapes in the clouds is equally important. You can’t find shapes in the clouds without allowing space for your imagination and relaxing into the activity.”

Favourite clouds

Pileus"It is known as an accessory cloud. One that appears in the vicinity of the main clouds. When you have tall billowing Cumulus congestus – which has a cauliflower-

looking top to it – sometimes one of these Pileus clouds can appear on top of it and it looks like a smooth bouffant toupee on top of a huge towering cloud. It is very transient. It only appears for a few minutes before the cloud beneath it grows through it.”

Lenticularis"You can generally see them in the vicinity of mountains. They look like UFOs."

Cirrus"One of the 10 main types of clouds. A high cloud composed of cascading ice crystals. They take on a wavy, streaked appearance."

The Cloudspotter's Guide and The Cloud Collector's Handbookby Gavin Pretor-Pinney are published by Sceptre. www.cloudappreciation society.co.uk