The Guardian website has two great pictorial featurettes on clouds today, courtesy of Gavin Pretor-Pinney, whose book The Cloudspotter’s Guide is an incredible tour-de-force of all things meteorological.  Recently I’ve been dipping in and out of a dozen books about the sky and the strange things that fill it, but Pretor-Pinney’s is the stand-out publication for a magpie like me, who struggles when things get too technical.

It must be incredible to actually see some of these clouds.  To lie on your back in the grass, looking straight up at them.  That’s the universe, just up there…

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/interactive/2009/jul/17/cloud-collector-pretor-pinney

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/gallery/2009/jun/01/2?picture=348217732