An Illustrated Field Guide to the Science and Wonder of the Clouds

Clouds drift ephemeral across the dome of this world, carrying eternity — condensing molecules that animated the first breath of life, coursing with electric charges that will power the last thought.

To me, a cloud will always be a spell against indifference — a little bloom of wonder to remind us that everything changes yet everything holds.

Two centuries after the amateur meteorologist Luke Howard classified the clouds with Goethe’s aid and two generations after Rachel Carson composed her ly...