Science & Life Skills

Learn how Luke Howard created the naming system we still use for clouds today.

Luke Howard was a pharmacist who loved studying weather and clouds. He spent his childhood staring at clouds through classroom windows and learned Latin in school.

Howard realized that clouds have many shapes but only a few basic forms. He named three main types using Latin words: cirrus (hair-like), cumulus (heap), and stratus (layer).

Howard created names for clouds that change and combine, like cirrostratus and stratocumulus. His system had seven cloud types, now expanded to ten, including cumulonimbus thunderclouds.

Famous artists and poets like Goethe, Shelley, and Constable were inspired by Howard's cloud names. Once named, clouds became easier to understand as signs of weather patterns.

Clouds don't actually float - they fall slowly due to gravity. Some stay up because of warm air rising from the ground, but most are slowly falling down like a slow dance.

How did clouds get their names? - Richard Hamblyn