If, like me, you sometimes find yourself looking up at the sky and drinking in the incredibly diverse range of cloud formations mother-nature can provide, you may find this info-graphic from the met office of interest.

The graphic shows the major cloud types and where they occur in the atmosphere vertically.

This article is timely today, as there was a fantastic array of Cirrocumulus clouds around Fife today, which attracted the attention of quite a few.

(Cirrocumulus over Lochgelly, Fife today - click to enlarge)

Although it may seem somewhat "anorakish", clouds can tell you a surprisingly large amount about what is happening in both the atmosphere presently and also, what weather might be to come.

So the next time you find yourself looking up, you may be able to add a name to those cloud formations!

You can read more about cloud spotting on the metoffice website's cloud spotting guide.

(Bootnote: Thanks to Maggie Taylor for giving me the idea to write this article today!)