Heavens above! Cloud Appreication Society’s beautiful 2012 calendar is a hit with sky-gazing fans

By
Jill Reilly

Last updated at 5:05 PM on 30th December 2011

Calendar manufacturers take note – scantily clad celebrities, flowers, and cute kittens are not as popular as they once were and it now seems that 12 different types of clouds are what some customers want hanging on their wall in 2012. 

The Cloud Appreciation Society is struggling to keep up with demand as its New Year calendar has become an unexpected hit.

The stunning pictures highlight the beauty that can be found simply by looking upwards into the sky.

Striking image: Owners of the Cloud Appreciation Society are greeted by this image of Fallstreak Hole over Rhode Island in the US for the month of January

Striking image: Owners of the Cloud Appreciation Society are greeted by this image of Fallstreak Hole over Rhode Island in the US for the month of January

New discovery: Cloud enthusiasts are particularly excited about the photo featuring on the month of February showing a cloud named Asperatus Undulatus over Arizona - they hope it will be recognised next year as a new type of cloud

New discovery: Cloud enthusiasts are particularly excited about the photo featuring on the month of February showing a cloud named Asperatus Undulatus over Arizona – they hope it will be recognised next year as a new type of cloud

March and April: March, left, is Cumulonimbus over the Pyrenees

April is Altocumulus Stratiformis over Queensland in Australia.

March and April: March, left, is Cumulonimbus over the Pyrenees, and April, right,  is Altocumulus Stratiformis over Queensland in Australia

Striking opportunity: Another rare and exciting month is 'July', taken over Fort William in Scotland, showing Noctilucent clouds

Striking opportunity: Another rare and exciting month is July, taken over Fort William in Scotland, showing Noctilucent clouds

Cloud enthusiasts are particularly excited about February on the calendar, which they hope will be recognised next year as a new type of cloud.

The society was formed in 2004 by ‘cloud nerd’ Gavin Pretor-Pinney and now has almost 30,000 members who send in their pictures.

The best 12 have been selected to represent a month each in next year’s calendar that is on sale from the society’s website for 9.99 pounds.

Included is a ‘classic’ Cumulonimbus capillatus cloud known as the ‘king of clouds’ that produces thunder, lightning and hail. It was taken by a pilot over the Pyrenees in France.

There is also a small, lone lenticularis cloud that looks like the one from the classic Japanese TV show Monkey.

Another rare and exciting month is July, which shows Noctilucent clouds.

They are exceptional because they form in the mesosphere, 50 miles high, not in the troposphere like most clouds.

View with a difference: September is called 'Radiation Fog in Holland'

View with a difference: September is called ‘Radiation Fog in Holland’

Breath-taking: Cap clouds over mountains in Bolivia form a beautiful image for November

Breath-taking: Cap clouds over mountains in Bolivia form a beautiful image for November

Electricity at night: A multi-cell storm over Poland, provides a stunning photo for 'August'

Electricity at night: A multi-cell storm over Poland, provides a stunning photo for August

They are so high that even when the sun goes down they still catch the sunlight.

Mr Pretor-Pinney, 43, from Somerton, Somerset, said: ‘This is our best calendar yet and has lots of rare and unusual clouds.

‘We have nearly 30,000 members now and they all send in photographs and we must have one of the biggest archives of cloud pictures in the world.

‘The calendar is of interest to those who have no real interest in clouds, but also to those who are enthusiasts.

Of particular interest is February that shows Asperatus undulatus clouds. We hope this will be recognised as a new classification.

‘We had more and more of these sent in and they didn’t fit into any existing catagorisation.

‘My brother is a Latin teacher and came up with the name that describes how it looks like a sea roughed up by wind.

‘We hope it will be included in next year’s International Cloud Atlas that is compiled by the World Meteorological Organisation.

‘The Noctilucent clouds are also interesting because they form very high – in the mesosphere, not in the troposphere where most clouds form.

‘We are seeing more and more of these and there is a theory that climate change might be responsible for the increase.

‘They are so high that even when the sun has gone down they catch the light for a period. They are towards the fringes of space and are quite mysterious.

Because we had so many pictures of clouds, producing a calendar seemed the obvious thing to do.
‘They are really selling well all over the world and we only have a few left.’

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