Today,  I got cloud photos sent to me from all over the world – Wales, Australia, Oregon,  Scotland, Lake Champlain, Ireland, and New Zealand. I had no idea the blog was as widely read or that there are so many cloud lovers out in the world.

Thanks for the pictures.

I look them up in my book and am learning quickly. Each time, I get even more excited about what I am learning.

Thoreau wrote in 1837: “For if there is nothing new on Earth, still there is something new in the heavens..they are constantly turning a new page to view. The wind sets the types in this blue ground, and the inquiring mind may always read a new truth.”

In the photo above, the day’s cloud is different, the first stratocumulus cumologenitus I’ve seen yet. Every cloud tells a different story. This is a prime example of a cloud transition; it changes from one level (genera) to another; this species occurs when the upper parts of rising cumulus clouds encounter what the scientists call a temperature inversion – a layer of air in which the average rate of atmospheric cooling has either slowed down or gone into reverse due to the presence of warm air currents (invisible to us but evident in the clouds) rushing at higher altitudes.

The rising thermal clouds are not strong enough to punch their way through a temperature inversion, so they stack up and flatten out. The increasing cloud, which has nowhere to go, spreads horizontally ahead, creating what the meteorologists call a “tapering experience.” I call them a diverse and chaotic sky that reaches the heavens.

The clouds, I am learning, tell us many stories about weather, climate change, weather systems, human behavior, and wind. It is true that each time I look at them and photograph them, I see and feel a new truth. I see a different cloud or a new foundation when I round a corner. Ten minutes later, they might be gone – or taller, or more scattered and layered.

I love the journey. Thanks for coming along. We’re just getting started.

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This afternoon, Maria and I are heading out to see a reportedly weird and glorious movie called Everything Everywhere All At Once. If it is anything like word of mouth (my daughter demands that I see it), I’ll put up a review later tonight.