ABSTRACT
To John Constable clouds were the essential frame for his studies of landscape, the ‘key note’ and the ‘standard of scale’ against which his compositions were structured. Yet for meteorologists clouds are the most ephemeral of weather phenomena, the hardest to measure objectively and the most difficult to understand in terms of processes of formation and decay. The classification of clouds, following the pioneering nineteenth century work of Luke Howard, is today still as much an art as it is a science. Clouds also have a fascination for humans, as evidenced by the current best-seller The Cloudspotter’s Guide which provides a grand worldwide survey of the history, science and culture of clouds.
