I have had a fascination with clouds for as long as I can remember. As a child, I would spend many happy hours staring up at them, admiring the artistic works that looked like tufts of cotton gently caressing the sky. Sometimes my siblings and I would compete to see who could find the best images – pointing out clouds that looked like animals, or people, or some other familiar shape – hoping the others would see your vision before the restless fingers of the windy artist reshaped it into something new, never satisfied with the masterpieces floating silently across the brilliant blue canvas.

In school we were taught that clouds form as a result of cool air mixing with water vapors to create pockets of condensation, and possibly ice crystals, that are suspended above the atmosphere, waiting and hoping to become rain drops. There was a bit more to the lesson of course, but that was a very long time ago.

Over the years I have outgrown many of my childhood fascinations, but this isn’t one of them, as you can see from the photo collection below:

Imagine my surprise when I discovered there may be more to this cloud thing than we were originally told. Kind of like that Roswell thing. That’s today, isn’t it? Anyway, while travelling along I-40 recently I collected this data that shows how clouds are really made…

I present to you, The Cloud Factory.