Head in the Clouds Amherst: Looking Up Together: Cloud Appreciation Day 2026

Friday, September 11, 2026

Looking Up Together: Cloud Appreciation Day 2026

Fleeting cirrocumulus over Amherst, August 2026
Photo by Sharon Vardatira

International Cloud Appreciation Day is here!

Today, Friday, September 11, people around the world are pausing to look up, notice the sky above them, and share what they see through the Cloud Appreciation Society’s Memory Cloud Atlas.

This is, hands down and eyes skyward, my favorite annual celebration. Wherever you are, you can take part for free: simply photograph your sky and submit your image at https://www.memorycloudatlas.org/.

The Atlas is open for contributions only today, although your photograph need not have been taken today. If you can’t get outside, or your sky is stubbornly cloudless, you’re welcome to submit a favorite cloud photograph from another time. Clouds do not always perform on command, and the Atlas understands.

You’ll also be invited to say a few words about how the sky makes you feel. Together, the photographs and reflections become an extraordinary record of people in different places, countries, and cultures turning their attention toward the same shared atmosphere.

I have the particular joy of participating from both sides of the Atlas. Along with submitting my own photographs, I serve on the Cloud Appreciation Society’s Member Council and am part of the global team working behind the scenes to review and curate the images as they arrive. Over the course of the day, I’ll scroll through hundreds of skies from around the world: quiet skies and dramatic ones, familiar cloud forms and astonishing surprises, each seen and shared by someone who took a moment to look up.

It is difficult to imagine a happier assignment.

In a year that has been difficult and tumultuous in so many ways, the Memory Cloud Atlas offers a simple but powerful reminder: looking up connects us - not only to the beauty and endless variety of the clouds, but to one another.

So wherever you are today, pause for a moment. Turn your eyes skyward. Photograph your patch of our shared atmosphere - and add it to the world.

Happy Cloud Appreciation Day! ☁️🌤️

#CloudAppreciationDay #MemoryCloudAtlas

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On Puffer's Pond

Saturday, February 4, 2023, 3:35 pm: The past two days have seen record-breaking cold in the area, with the temperature dipping to -14F overnight, Friday into Saturday. To make matters worse, the wind was unyielding, whipping through the trees and driving wind chill readings down to -40F. In a season that had been unusually mild up until that point, it was something of a shock. Local residents were suddenly forced to think about warming up their cars, preventing pipes from freezing, and dressing in multiple layers to walk their dogs. By Saturday, while many were happy to hunker down and wait for temperatures to stop breaking low records, this was the moment that ice fishers and skaters had been waiting for all winter. With temps hovering around 12F (albeit above zero) by Saturday afternoon, Puffer's Pond was the place to be for about 30 people, many of whom were spread out over the ice, either ice fishing or playing hockey. While this is a fairly typical sight at Puffer's in the coldest winter months, our current lack of snow made it unique. No one had to contend with snowpack - the skaters didn't even have to clear a "field" for their game. And with all the hiking paths snow and ice-free, photographers had no trouble capturing water flowing through, under, and around layers of ice on the water. And, still, at 12F, without hand and foot warmers, I did not linger long. The temps will be rising quickly in the coming week, climbing well above freezing, even to 50F in the days to come. So, I'm guessing the skaters and ice fishers also won't be here much longer.

(Read past entries here.)

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Friday, September 11, 2026

Looking Up Together: Cloud Appreciation Day 2026

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