Weather News

New Cloud Atlas for World Met Day

Ben Domensino, Thursday March 23, 2017 - 12:06 AEDT

Clouds are important and awesome. Not only do they help sustain life on our planet as part of the hydrological cycle, they can also be visually stunning.

Clouds of seemingly endless shapes and sizes can appear and evolve before your eyes and produce rain, hail, snow or lightning.

Clouds can be both beautiful and frightening and often leave us scratching our heads wondering how it all works. Thankfully, this is a question that has just been made easier to answer.

The World Meteorological Organisation has released an updated version of its International Cloud Atlas to celebrate World Meteorological Day, which is today.

The Atlas is the world's authoritative guide to clouds and this update, the first since 1987, finally brings it into the digital age. The comprehensive and easy-to-understand guide can now be accessed online by amateur sky-gazers and meteorologists alike.

Today's edition has come a long way since the first Cloud Atlas was published in the late 19th Century. New classifications in the latest edition include the human-induced contrail, which can form in the wake of aeroplanes and asperitas, which look like waves rolling through the sky.

The new and improved International Cloud Atlas can be found online at www.wmocloudatlas.org

- Weatherzone

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