Cloud Appreciation Society Celebrates 10 Years At The Cutting Edge Of Cloudspotting

This weekend the Royal Geographical Society will host the 2015 Cloud Appreciation Society Conference, a daylong celebration of the sky to mark the tenth anniversary of the organisation.

The Cloud Appreciation Society, an international community of cloudspotters, was first founded in 2005 by former co-creator of the Idler Magazine, Gavin Pretor-Pinney. The community has since grown to nearly 40,000 members from across 106 countries.

Milestones of the Society’s ten year history includes gathering the most extensive catalogued collection of digital cloud photographs in the world and the discovery of a new cloud type – “asperitas” – the first new cloud since 1951.

“We’ve got cloudspotters converging from across the globe, from off-duty storm chasers to the odd celebrity weather man,” said Gavin Pretor-Pinney.

“The ephemeral beauty of clouds touches us all, and that’s what we’re celebrating.”

Renewable electricity company Good Energy is sponsoring the event. Juliet Davenport OBE, Good Energy’s founder and chief executive said: “I’m constantly watching the weather, because we source all of the electricity our customers use from the sun, wind and rain.”

“Clouds are an awe-inspiring natural phenomenon, amazing physics in action above our heads all the time, and they can tell us a lot about climate change.”