Cloudspotting for Beginners

A beautifully illustrated guide to clouds and the sky for inspiring and educating curious minds with meteorological wonder.

Renowned journalist, public speaker, and founder of the Cloud Appreciation Society Gavin Pretor-Pinney details the key facts and characteristics about each major cloud type. To accompany these scientific tidbits, William Grill’s gorgeous illustrations of vast colorful skies and mesmerizing cloud patterns create a calming, thought-provoking learning experience.

From low-lying Stratus to high-flying Cirrus, Cloudspotting for Beginners covers how clouds are formed, the altitudes they prefer, the curious shapes they take, how they affect other meterological events, and more. The book breaks down the life and structure of a cloud on a molecular level, and then even expands on their interesting cross-planetary variations—for example, Jupiter’s clouds are composed of ammonia ice crystals and Saturn’s clouds congregate in an inexplicable hexagon around the planet’s North Pole.

Clouds require a fascinating amount of chemical precision in order to exist, yet they disappear and form again on a daily basis with ease. Cloudspotting for Beginners is a whimsical lesson on the oft-overlooked extraordinary lives of clouds that will serve as a gentle reminder to be present and observant in the face of impermanence. Just as informative as it is poetic and peaceful, this is the perfect guide for cloud appreciators and sky lovers.

Author Biography

Gavin Pretor-Pinney is founder of the Cloud Appreciation Society. He is the author of the internationally bestselling Cloudspotter’s Guide and Cloud Collector’s Handbook. His third book, The Wavewatcher’s Companion, won the prestigious Royal Society Winton Prize for Science Books. Gavin is a TED Global speaker with over a million views. He has presented television documentaries for the BBC and Channel 4 and is a visiting fellow at the Meteorology Department of Reading University and winner of the Royal Meteorological Society’s Michael Hunt award.

William Grill is a Bristol-based illustrator whose main interest lies in narrative illustration and publishing. He draws most of his inspiration from the natural world and enjoys working in colored pencils and occasionally printmaking processes such as lino and lithography. His first book, Shackleton’s Journey, won the Kate Greenaway award and has been translated into over fourteen languages, and his second book, The Wolves of Currumpaw, won the Bologna Ragazzi Prize for Non-fiction.