New Cloud on the Horizon

A cloud that looks like a roiling ocean surface and named Undulus Asperatus will be the first to be classified since Cirrus Intortus in 1951.

Clouds have distinct personalities and are categorised accordingly. If the UK-based Cloud Appreciation Society has its way, a new cloud will be added to the list, the first to be classified since Cirrus Intortus in 1951. Named Undulus Asperatus (from the Latin word to ‘agitate’), the choppy cloud looks like a roiling ocean surface when seen from below. Gavin Pretor-Pinney, who runs the Society, was reported as saying that he had started receiving pictures of “weird” clouds from across the world in 2005. This, though, is only half the battle won for Asperatus. The Royal Meteorological Society is trying to determine whether it is indeed a new kind of cloud, and if it is different from the already classified Undulatus (wave-like clouds).

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Kabeer Sharma