Maria Mudd Ruth - A Sideways Look At Clouds

a
sideways
look
at
clouds

a
sideways
look
at
clouds

maria mudd ruth

Mountaineers Books is the publishing division of The Mountaineers, an organization founded in 1906 and dedicated to the exploration, preservation, and enjoyment of outdoor and wilderness areas.

1001 SW Klickitat Way, Suite 201, Seattle, WA 98134

800.553.4453, www.mountaineersbooks.org

Copyright 2017 by Maria Mudd Ruth

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form, or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

Printed in Canada

Distributed in the United Kingdom by Cordee, www.cordee.co.uk

20 19 18 171 2 3 4 5

Copy editor: Chris Dodge

Cover and book design: Jen Grable

Endsheet illustration: Anna-Lisa Notter, www.annalisanotter.com

All photographs by the author unless otherwise credited.

Symbols at the start of each chapter are used in meteorological charts and reports to indicate cloud types. Cloud illustrations on endsheets reflect the approximate altitudinal relationship of the ten main types of clouds; these are graphic representations only and not intended for identification purposes.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Ruth, Maria Mudd.

Title: A sideways look at clouds / Maria Mudd Ruth.

Description: Seattle, WA : Mountaineers Books, [2017] | Includes index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2017012746 (print) | LCCN 2017009778 (ebook) | ISBN 9781680511185 (trade paper) | ISBN 9781680511192 (ebook)

Subjects: LCSH: Clouds. | Atmosphere. | Cloud physics.

Classification: LCC QC921 .R93 2017 (ebook) | LCC QC921 (print) | DDC 551.57/6dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017012746

Mountaineers Books titles may be purchased for corporate, educational, or other promotional sales, and our authors are available for a wide range of events. For information on special discounts or booking an author, contact our customer service at 800-553-4453 or .

Printed on recycled paper

ISBN (hardcover): 978-1-68051-118-5

ISBN (ebook): 978-1-68051-119-2

For my guys

I learned the names of the clouds when I was forty-eight years oldtoo old, it seemed, to be learning something I should have memorized long ago with my multiplication tables and state capitals. I was not in a classroom at the time or reading a book about the weather but standing in the dim hallway of a neighbors house, jangling my car keys, irked.

The neighbor had called me earlier that October morning for a lastminute ride to the train station. When I arrived at her house, she was just starting to pack her bags. She was running late and I was in rush. I had set aside that particular morning to settle on the subject for my next booka decision I had been agonizing over for too long. Away from my desk, I was certain I was missing the appearance of my erstwhile muse.

I stood in her front hall and called out the time every few minutes. I cleared my throat histrionically. I asked about a later train. When this failed to hasten our departure, I waited some morebadly, impatiently, loudly. I wanted to be a patient person, a good neighbor, and a productive writer, but I was failing miserably at all three. I closed my eyes and breathed deeply. I shifted my weight from one foot to the other. I rolled my shoulders. I stretched my neck. I turned my head slowly to the right and then the left. Thats when I saw themthe cloudsdozens of them, just two feet away.

They were luscious, dappled, upswept, wind-whipped, storm-tossed, and so full of energy that they seemed more like trapped, living clouds than photographs. But there they were, in neat rows, confined in four-by-four-inch squares on a poster pinned to the hall-closet door.

The clouds sprawled across skies, dwarfing the landscapes beneath them. Mountain ranges cowered, forests seemed stunted, skyscrapers and church steeples appeared puny.

At the top of the poster was an assertive title: A Guide to the Sky. I turned on the hallway light and stepped closer to the door. I scanned all thirty clouds but did not see the names of the clouds I knewmares tails, thunderheads, mackerel skies. I recognized some of the cloud shapes but could not guess their namestheir scientific Latin namesCirrus, Cumulus, Stratus, and others that appeared beneath each photo.

My ignorance appalled and intrigued me. Were these not the kinds of clouds I had always lived under? Were these not the cloud names that appeared in every science book for children and on every classroom water-cycle poster or weather chart I had laid my eyes on over the years? I could not recall when or where I had learned these namesif I ever had. Clouds seemed like strangers now, after too many years of not saying their names, of barely glancing at them and only then if they were spectacular. Even after moving to the Pacific Northwestto the cloud-covered city of Olympia, WashingtonI hadnt given clouds the time of day. I had certainly had no interest in being on a first-name basis with them.

But as I stood there in the hallway that morning, the clouds grabbed me and would not let go. I could not take my eyes off the cloud poster. Suddenly, waiting became floating.