There is no doubt that Solomon was very wise. He did not hesitate, moreover, to give the world the full benefit of his sagacity, since we have it on reliable authority that "he spake three thousand proverbs, and his songs numbered one thousand and five".
He is also credited with authorship of Ecclesiastes, which contains several examples of this wisdom applied specifically to meteorology; as, for example, the passage in chapter 11 where he tells us with indisputable logic: "If the clouds be full, they will pour out rain upon the Earth."
It is for this very reason that weather people like to keep an eye upon the clouds.
The first real sign of an impending rainstorm, for example, may often be the appearance of thin wisps or curls of cirrus cloud, high up against a clear blue sky.
It was the physical appearance and the well-known meteorological significance of this advancing cirrus that provided the inspiration for Percy Shelley, when in Ode to the West Wind he describes the arrival of: even from the dim verge
Of the horizon to the zenith's height,
The locks of the approaching storm.
Weather observers around the country look closely at the clouds for signs like these, and report faithfully to their nearest forecasting centre exactly how much of each particular type of cloud was present in the sky at the time they made their observation. It is also of obvious importance to the forecaster to know if the amount of cloud is increasing, decreasing or remaining much the same.
The cloud amount is reported by the observer in a unit called the okta.
This is a coverage of one-eighth of what is rather grandly called the "celestial dome".
If half the sky is covered with a particular type of cloud, then as far as the meteorologist is concerned, four okta of cloud are present.
Until not too long ago, cloud amounts were reported in tenths, but flying in the face of the emerging trend for decimalisation, meteorologists decided in 1949 to adopt the okta system.
One advantage of this is it always allows the amount of cloud in the sky to be included in a weather report as a single figure.
It is also convenient that the number 8 has a multitude of factors. It is convenient at times for the observer to be able mentally to divide the sky into two halves, each of four oktas - or even quadrants, each of two oktas - and, by examining each zone separately, arrive at an accurrate assessment of the whole.