John Doe
October 23 | 5 Months Ago
Lenticular clouds are pictured on January 14, 2024, in La Possession on France’s Indian Ocean Reunion Island ahead of tropical storm Belal. (Photo by Richard BOUHET / AFP) (Photo by RICHARD BOUHET/AFP via Getty Images)
AFP via Getty Images
September 12, 2025, is Cloud Appreciation Day, according to the Cloud Appreciation Society. Its website encourages everyone to, “Look up to appreciate the beauty of the clouds.” As I child, that’s exactly what I used to do. My curiosity with cloud patterns led to a successful career in meteorology. Decades later, a new app has emerged that modernizes the idea of cloud watching.
The app is called SeeMyClouds, and it was developed by Bruce Albrecht. The professor emeritus at the University of Miami described it as a social-media platform where weather and cloud enthusiasts, students, educators and photographers can share cloud photos and enjoy the photos of others. He told me in an email, “Photos of clouds of all types are welcomed as are photos of atmospheric optical effects due to clouds—like sunsets, rainbows, and halos. Of course, photos of severe weather phenomena are very much welcomed.”
(GERMANY OUT) Mammatus-Wolken, Mammati an Gewitterwolke, bei Alassio (Photo by Rainer Binder/ullstein bild via Getty Images)
ullstein bild via Getty Images
Meteorology has been a passion of mine since I was a young boy. I consumed virtually every book in the library that showed cloud types. In most elementary schools, students are exposed to three or four basic cloud types, but there are so many more. Clouds are described by their form, altitude and other characteristics. They also provide clues about weather conditions and play a significant role in our climate. However, clouds also fascinate, inspire and even frighten people.
At my son’s track meet earlier this year, many people were buzzing about an ominous-looking shelf cloud that moved over the stadium. I have pulled over many times to snap a picture of a fascinating cloud formation. Albrecht told me, “Taking cloud photos is more popular than ever, thanks to the convenience of smartphones with high-quality cameras. These snapshots, easily uploaded to social media, let people share their favorite cloud moments with friends and fellow enthusiasts. Data supports his claims. Facebook’s Cloud Appreciation Society group has 670,000 members. However, that wasn’t always the case.
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A shelf cloud in the Atlanta area
Marshall Shepherd
As an atmospheric scientist, I was quite familiar with Albrecht’s work. He is a noted scholar who studies convection, the atmospheric boundary layer, tropical meteorology and turbulence. So why did he become so passionate about clouds? His research portfolio certainly included cloud-climate interactions and using advancing observing techniques for clouds, but there was more.
“My journey into sharing cloud photos on social media began in the early 2000s,” he told me by email. “At that time, I noticed a decline in the number of people visiting national parks and other site-seeing areas.” He attributed that to the availability of online access.
“While teaching at the University of Miami, I often observed students walking across campus completely absorbed in their phones, rarely glancing up at the sky above them,” Albrecht noted. This inspired him to flip the technology script by, “using the very devices that distract us to help people rediscover the sky.” That epiphany led him to acquire SeeMyClouds.com and to develop the app, which is now available in major app stores. The app, unlike general photo-sharing apps, features cloud classification tags, allowing users to label the cloud types in their photos.
Sign me up. This is a unique app for the weather geeks (like me) or those inspired by the beauty of nature above us.
The golden sun drops into the horizon of the Pacific Ocean turning the sky orange and reflecting on the sea in 2013 in Malibu, California. (Photo by Roxanne McCann/Getty Images)
Getty Images
