A CONSTANT pageant gliding across our skies, clouds are nothing more than ephemeral patches of water droplets or ice crystals. Yet their influence on many aspects of life, past and present, is indubitable and millions of us around the globe are entranced by these transient, evocative aspects of Nature.
Such is the British Isles’s location, predominant winds rush in from the Atlantic Ocean, resulting in clouds being regular visitors to our shores. However, we’re not alone: in fact, NASA’s Earth Observatory estimates that about 67% of our planet’s surface is covered in cloud most of the time.
The classification of clouds, which introduced such poetic names as cumulus and cirrus, has existed for more than 200 years. We have an amateur meteorologist to thank for dreaming it up. In doing so, he afforded the world its first language of the skies.
Luke Howard, a London pharmacist and passionate about meteorology, was a member of the Askesian Society—a London-based debating club for scientific thinkers—and presented his Essay on the Modifications of Clouds, at a meeting in December, 1802. He chose Latin—regarded as the language of science—for naming the different forms of cloud. Cirrus, meaning curl of hair, cumulus, which translates to heap, and stratus, for something spread, were among the names he selected. Realising that clouds could also change their form and turn into an intermediate category, he introduced other terms accordingly, such as cirrostratus.
Today, his terminology is still used worldwide by meteorologists—a fine achievement for a self-taught man. The son of a successful businessman, Howard was born in London in 1772. Educated at a Quaker school in Oxfordshire, his fascination with climate was sparked by his experience in 1783, when, aged 11, he witnessed Nature at its wildest.
Denne historien er fra July 01, 2020-utgaven av Country Life UK.
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Denne historien er fra July 01, 2020-utgaven av Country Life UK.
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Happiness in small things
Putting life into perspective and forces of nature in farming
Colour vision
In an eye-baffling arrangement of geometric shapes, a sinister-looking clown and a little girl, Test Card F is one of television’s most enduring images, says Rob Crossan
'Without fever there is no creation'
Three of the top 10 operas performed worldwide are by the emotionally volatile Italian composer Giacomo Puccini, who died a century ago. Henrietta Bredin explains how his colourful life influenced his melodramatic plot lines
The colour revolution
Toxic, dull or fast-fading pigments had long made it tricky for artists to paint verdant scenes, but the 19th century ushered in a viridescent explosion of waterlili
Bullace for you
The distinction between plums, damsons and bullaces is sweetly subtle, boiling down to flavour and aesthetics, but don’t eat the stones, warns John Wright
Lights, camera, action!
Three remarkable country houses, two of which have links to the film industry, the other the setting for a top-class croquet tournament, are anything but ordinary
I was on fire for you, where did you go?
In Iceland, a land with no monks or monkeys, our correspondent attempts to master the art of fishing light’ for Salmo salar, by stroking the creases and dimples of the Midfjardara river like the features of a loved one
Bravery bevond belief
A teenager on his gap year who saved a boy and his father from being savaged by a crocodile is one of a host of heroic acts celebrated in a book to mark the 250th anniversary of the Royal Humane Society, says its author Rupert Uloth
Let's get to the bottom of this
Discovering a well on your property can be viewed as a blessing or a curse, but all's well that ends well, says Deborah Nicholls-Lee, as she examines the benefits of a personal water supply
Sing on, sweet bird
An essential component of our emotional relationship with the landscape, the mellifluous song of a thrush shapes the very foundation of human happiness, notes Mark Cocker, as he takes a closer look at this diverse family of birds