Cloud Atlas

Cloud Atlas

Everything You Need to Know about Clouds

Sarah Zambello

Suzy Zanella

Thames & Hudson, 2024

80pp., hbk., RRP $A34.99

9781760764500

As I look out my window this morning all I can see is big blue sky but over on the horizon is a roll of sinister-looking clouds that I know herald a snowstorm in the mountains and the prospect of snow here soon as we wait for the “storm of the season” to roll in.  (Another one). I also know that if I looked at the Cloud Atlas in front of me I could learn just what sort of clouds they are apart from “snow clouds”.

The predecessor to both Wave Atlas and Wind Atlas , this is another fascinating, easy-to-read insight into the natural phenomena that dictate so much of our lives.

So many of us have spent hours lying on our backs in the sun, gazing at the clouds as they form and re-form making pictures that have us wondering and imagining.  But what are they? How do they form? Are they all the same? What do they tell us?  What can we learn from observing them? Which ones mean we can have our barbecue in the dry and which ones warn us to stay home?

All of these questions (and more) are answered in this comprehensive guide for young independent readers with a thirst for finding out more about such everyday things, particularly if their imaginations have been sparked by one of the numerous stories about clouds on the library shelves. 

Through accessible text, clear diagrams and stunning skyscapes, they can learn the difference between cirrus and cumulus clouds and all the variations in between, even “accessory clouds” and “mother clouds” Who knew that some clouds cannot bear to be on their own and join up with others, or that some clouds ‘give birth’ to other clouds?  

This is a trio of the most useful and informative books I’ve read and reviewed in a while, and if I’ve learned as much as I have, imagine how much those who are not so old can learn.  

And yes, now I know those that have progressed significantly since I started writing are called nimbostratus  – they develop vertically from a height of 600 metres (we’re at 1100m) and reaching 6000m, composed of water droplets and ice crystals  forming “a thick, dark grey layer” which covers the sun and produces rain or snow!  At this time of the year they are a welcome sight to both local businesses and tourists, but, for me, they are a sign to put another log on the fire because the wind bringing them in is boisterous, thin and mean.