Nothing New Under the Sun?

But how about a new type of cloud?

National Geographic is reporting the quest of Gavin Pretor-Pinney, founder of the Cloud Appreciation Society, to have declared that a new type of cloud has been found.

The British cloud enthusiast said he began getting photos of "dramatic" and "weird" clouds (including the above) in 2005 that he didn't know how to define.

A few months ago he began preparing to propose the odd formations as a new cloud variety to the UN's World Meteorological Organization, which classifies cloud types.

Pretor-Pinney jokingly calls it the "Jacques Cousteau cloud," after its resemblance to a roiling ocean surface seen from below. But the cloud fan has proposed a "formal," Latin name: Undulus asperatus"; roughly, "a very turbulent, violent, chaotic form of undulation," explained Pretor-Pinney, author of the new Cloud Collector's Handbook.

Margaret LeMone, a cloud expert with the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado, said that she has taken photos of asperatus clouds intermittently over the past 30 years.

It's likely that the cloud will turn out to be a new variety, LeMone said.

If you want to see a photo of the new cloud nominee, click the above link.