Cloud-watching is among the countryside attractions on offer in Tessa Wardley's new guide The Countryside Book. She gives us a quick look at types of clouds and where to watch them
Lie back on a bed of grass and watch the clouds scoot by changing shape as they go. Take a camera and send your pictures to the Cloud Appreciation Society.
CUMULUS
Fluffy sheep and fair-weather clouds; they don’t bring rain, but accentuate a good day.
STRATUS
Low-lying sheets of thin, grey, misty, featureless cloud; the mother and father of drizzle.
CIRRUS
The highest of clouds, they look like streaks of hair and are often known as mares’ tail. They are the harbingers of bad weather to come.
CUMULONIMBUS
Towering, violent thunderclouds that shed their rain in short outbursts, exhausting themselves rapidly.
Try cloud spotting at: Box Hill, Barnes Common and Winey Hill
Read an excerpt of The Countryside Book
