| Observing Clouds To Forecast Weather |
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 Pablo Edronkin
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People experienced in outdoor activities, frequently due to living in a rural area, in wildlands, and such places know empirically how to forecast weather; they do so taking into account several factors, but one of those is the kind of clouds that they see. When Columbus was returning from the New World a heavy storm over the Atlantic caused the separation of his flotilla - possibly a tropical storm or a hurricane - and he assumed that the other ships were lost until he returned to Spain. It wasn't a situation that he lamented too much because by that stage during his firs expedition he was already at odds with the Pinzon brothers, his lieutenants back then, and commanders of the other two vessels. The Admiral was a man of very bad temper and this feud was just the beginning of a problem that ended having him arrested and demoted from his position by the crown. No doubt, his temper was foul but the weather over the Atlantic surely helped too. A couple of centuries later, navigators such as Captain Cook, Lieutenant Blight, La Perouse and Admiral Anson became famous in very different ways according to the treat that meteorology gave them in some parts of the world. La Perouse vanished along with his ships and crew in the Pacific and it wasn't unlit very recently that they were found: His expedition was struck by a typhoon and sunk with almost all souls on a reef. The survivors were left stranded for the rest of their lives in some island that is even today quite isolated from the rest of the planet. Cook was luckier with the weather and until his death he managed to amass a huge fortune selling the rights of publication for his notes and information coming from his expeditions. Lieutenant Blight suffered a famous mutiny by cause of several factors, including his desire to cross Cape Horn on his way back to Britain, after an ill-fated attempt on the way to Tahiti. The people onboard couldn't stand it. Admiral Anson went on to cross the Le Maire strait and lost almost all his men and ships, and never had a happy day in his life again committing suicide shortly after. Navigators felt the need to develop weather forecasting techniques but it wasn't until the nineteenth century that such knowledge was made possible: Captain Fitz Roy was among the pioneers of the new science of meteorology, and his observations during his several voyages, including the one that he made with Charles Darwin were fundamental as data gathered for other researchers to prove different theories that constitute now the backbone of this science, allowing meteorologists to make increasingly precise forecasts. Many factors take part in the equation that determines the local weather but clouds play a very significant role and are both cause and consequence of meteorological phenomena. Thus, knowing what a cloud is and what types exist it is possible to gain a better understanding of the weather in order to make empirical observations. A cloud is nothing more than the moisture of the air turned visible, but the way in which this occurs determines what kind of cloud will pop into existence and the way in which the weather will behave from then on. You will find several links on this page that will take you to different pages explaining various aspects of this topic, including to descriptions of each type of cloud and what they do represent.
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