Top: June 20, 2006 photo taken by Jane Wiggins in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, shows what could become the first new cloud type to be recognized by scientists since 1951. (Jane Wiggins/AP Images) Bottom, left to right: Cumulus, cirrus, and stratus clouds.
A New Kind of Cloud?
Sky-watchers say a special type of cloud should get its own name
As anyone knows who has looked up at the sky, clouds come in many shapes and sizes. Most clouds fall into three main categories. Cumulus (kyoo-myuh-luhs) are big, fat clouds that look like huge cotton balls. Cirrus (sir-us) clouds appear wispy and look like feathers. And stratus clouds look like fog hanging high above the ground.
Now, a group of sky-watchers wants to add a new type of cloud to the crowd—but first they'll have to convince the experts that this cloud exists.
Picture This
In 2006, Jane Wiggins was watching a storm blow in from her office in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Suddenly, she saw the sky fill with rolling green- and yellow-tinted clouds. The clouds seemed to change from light to dark by the minute.
"It looked like someone was going to come out of the sky," she told the Philadelphia Inquirer. "It was so unreal."
Wiggins captured a photo of the threatening midwestern sky and posted it on the Internet. She wanted to see what others thought of the unusual cloud formation.
Gavin Pretor-Pinney and members of his Cloud Appreciation Society studied Wiggins's photo. The cloud admirers compared it with similar images from all over the world.
The group came to believe these clouds didn't fit into any of the existing categories. So Pretor-Pinney started a campaign to get weather authorities to create a new cloud name.
Experts Weigh In
There are a few obstacles standing in Pretor-Pinney's way.
Many meteorologists, or scientists who study weather, are skeptical that these are new types of clouds. (Pretor-Pinney has not studied meteorology formally.)
Some experts who have seen Pretor-Pinney's collection of photos think they are simply a combination of existing types of clouds.
What's more, it could take years of scientific investigation before the debate reaches the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). The WMO is the only group with the authority to officially name clouds. And the WMO doesn't take its naming duties lightly. The group hasn't recognized a new type of cloud since the 1950s.
But experts at the Royal Meteorological Society in the United Kingdom think Pretor-Pinney may have a case. In addition to studying images of the clouds, they are talking with people who took the photos. The meteorologists are trying to find out exactly what combination of weather could spark such an unusual cloud formation.
Royal Society executive director Paul Hardaker is among the scientists studying the collection of cloud evidence.
"By this stage, we think it's sufficiently interesting to explore it further and we're optimistic about the information we've got," Hardaker told a major American news service.
Whatever the result of the cloud-naming campaign, Pretor-Pinney's enthusiasm for clouds isn't likely to be dampened. He loves clouds so much he gave his 3-year-old daughter the middle name "Cirrus."
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Photo credits from above: Cumulus clouds: Jeremy Woodhouse/Getty Images. Cirrus clouds: Image Source/Getty Images. Stratus clouds: David R. Frazier/Photo Researchers, Inc.
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