Reading the Clouds

Your phone tells you what the weather will probably do across a whole county. The sky above your head is more specific than that.

Clouds are not decoration. They are the working parts of the atmosphere, and they change shape in a fixed order as weather moves in. Once you know that order, a glance at the sky tells you whether to start the walk, hang out the washing, or head for the car.

Fifty signs, one page each.

• A photograph of every sign - so you can compare the sky with the page instead of guessing from a description.
• What you see, what it means, what often follows - the same three questions for all fifty, so the book reads the same way every time.
• An 'easy to mix up with' box on every page - the two clouds that look alike, and the one detail that separates them.
• More than clouds - wind shifts, falling and rising pressure, dew, frost, fog, haloes, rainbows and how far you can see.
• Warm and cold front diagrams - the two sequences that let you follow a weather system across your sky from first wisp to clearance.
• A three-minute daily routine - morning, midday and evening, plus a record sheet that turns guesses into skill.

Written for people who go outside. Walkers, gardeners, sailors, cyclists, dog owners, anyone who plans a day around the weather. No equipment is needed and no science background is assumed - every technical term is explained where it first appears and again in the glossary.

This book is honest about what the sky can and cannot tell you. Weather signs describe tendencies over the next few hours, not certainties, and the entries say so. What you get is the skill of looking up and understanding what you see - something a forecast on a screen cannot give you.

Look up. The sky has been telling you this all along.