Customer Reviews
Popular science - we need more of this - By: Annabel Gaskell, 12 Apr 2008 
This is a delightful book, written for enthusiasts, but containing enough good science to satisfy more expert readers. It does this & manages to be thoroughly entertaining too. The author's text is eminently readable & the technobabble is negligible & is augmented by clear diagrams & photos.
Interspersed throughout are digressions, discussions, cloud-lore & experiences relating to clouds, whether it be Turner's paintings or the effects of SAD (seasonal affective disorder). Some of these asides do tend to be somewhat whimsical, but fitin with the overall style of the book. The star anecdote has to be the experience of the jet fighter pilot who had to eject into the middle of a cumolonimbus thundercloud & lived to tell the tale.
The only thing missing is loads more colour photos.
A fun & informative read.
Let down by shoddy publishing - By: F. Merritt, 01 Feb 2008 The text is inspiring & delightful. The photos (apart from a few colour pages) are very poor; small (some are about 1 inch square), grainy & murky. The subject matter deserves better than this.
Very entertaining, informative book - By: K. R. MOFFAT, 18 Dec 2007 Really enjoyed this book. All major cloud formations are described as well as many interesting natural phenomena such a thunder/lighting, rainbows, snow, rain etc.
There could have been more pictures of clouds as some were not illustrated & words are not enough.
Look up for clouds - By: Mr P R Morgan, 31 Oct 2007 
Gavin Pretor-Pinner deserves praise for taking something so obvious as clouds, & writing a whole book. We tend to take the fluffy white (or bleak grey ......) objects for granted, & many know a little about what they are composed of, & where they come from. Mr P-P is obviously something of an expertin his field, & a real enthusiast, & has caused my thoughts to be "amongst the clouds", &in that the book has achieved some success. However, can I still name the 10 cloud types, & identify them? That is a different matter.
After a general introduction, there are chapters on each of the 10 (main) cloud types. In previous eras, clouds were seen to portend the weather. In the days of the 24-hour availability of detailed meteorological forecasts, that is now hard to believe. Knowledge of cloud formations is becoming something that we do not need to know. There are detailed explanations of weather fronts, (cold front, warm front & what used to be known as occluded fronts). However, there are no weather maps as a pictorial guide, with isobars. That would have been helpful.
Generally, I liked the book more as I progressed, but the subject matter is not `a story'. Gavin writes better when the detail is linked to little anecdotes, & he has a wry sense of humour, more to make the reader weakly smile that laugh. There are informative matters of detail, so that any reader will come away with items they never knew. The style brings life to the sometimes dry subject matter of condensed water vapour, which at times left me reeling with formation details & Latin names of the sub-species of clouds.
I found that some detail of the basic cloud types merged into each other, much as a blanket of Cirrostratus. But then again, I am not a paid-up member of the Cloud Appreciation Society - yes there really is such a society, & this book resulted from that organisation, with the author as its founder. Of more interest to me was the detail about halos, & other visual effects that can be seen. Before opening this book, I had never heard of a `sundog', & am now eager to see one.
Is the weather the same now as it has always been? Mr P-P talks about climate change from a different angle, bringing thisin to waysin which we have changed our clouds. This has been done both consciously (Russian attempts to ensure that the weather is fine for May day parades), & unconsciously. In the latter category come the new types of clouds that are seen highin the sky on some otherwise cloud-free days - the contrails ("condensation trails") from jet aircraft. It is interesting to note the effect that 9/11 had climate on the USA, with no aircraft flying & causing contrails for 48 hours. This resultedin an increased average difference of day-time & night-time temperatures of 1.1 degrees centigradein tem mediate aftermath.
The last chapter details a particular cloud formation, not one of the 10 cloud types, but a spectacular, localised cloud, known as "The Morning Glory". Impressive as this is, I found it has too much coverage, & there were many more illustrations than of more widely-occurring phenomena. Awe-inspiring - yes. Worth that amount of coverage - no.
One thing is certain, I walk more with my headin the clouds, looking at the water vapour above, below & around me with a little more knowledge & detail.
Look up - By: R. L. Barker, 18 Oct 2007 It's a book about clouds.
What they look like, different types, their Latin names & species (yes, clouds have species), how they're formed & a bit of technical stuff & some science & a few funny diagrams; & then there's also poems & stories & myths about clouds, anecdotes & legends about clouds.
But it's interesting & I enjoyed it. It's not for reading allin one go, better for dippingin & out of.
It's informative & educational - I can now distinguish all the major cloud types, (and enjoy doing so) although there is not enough information for `The Cloudspotter's Guide' to be used for reference material.
And I must issue a warning: Expect lapses of concentration whilst driving, due to unavoidable cloudspotting.
