I Am A Cloudspotter

Hello, my name is Carolyn and I am a Cloudspotter. Officially, I mean.

My good friend, Kathleen pointed me to a site that has interesting cloud photos featured. She suggested I send this one in:

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(click to enlarge)

I took it on Election Day in 2004. I thought it looked like a giant peace dove, descending from the heavens, holding an olive branch. Ah, me. Ever the optimist. Well, the election didn't turn out the way I wanted (cleansing breath) but the photo made it into the Cloudspotter's Guide.

From their official site:

A humorous and instructive tour of the sky, the book introduces each of the different characters in the cloud family in turn. It tells of clouds being used to predict earthquakes and of one in Australia that glider pilots surf like a wave. It also settles such pressing questions as which variety of mackerel is it that lends its name to the ‘mackerel skies’ of the cirrocumulus stratiformis undulatus? And, more hypothetically, who would win in a fight between a cumulonimbus and a nimbostratus?

Besides numerous diagrams and illustrations, the book also includes over fifty photographs, kindly contributed by the fantastic cloud photographers swelling the ranks of The Cloud Appreciation Society. It also has a colour ‘Cloudspotting Diploma’ section in the middle, with which you can test your new-found understanding of the skies.

I got my courtesy contributor copy last week. Kind of neat to see my photo in there. It's a crazy, funny book. And, let's face it, it's nice to spend some time looking up.

Far cooler clouds than mine spotted on their website.