In a Ted Talk, Founder of the Cloud Appreciation Society Gavin Pretor-Pinney said, “You don’t need to plan an exotic trip to find creative inspiration. Just look up.” Often clouds are represented with storms, dark skies and ominous foreshadowing. But is it possible to find beauty in such mundane things as clouds?

The Cloud Appreciation Society was formed in 2005 by Pinney author of The Cloudspotter’s Guide and The Cloud Collector’s Handbook on the belief that clouds rise above the negativeness imposed on clouds by society.

“We believe that clouds are unjustly maligned and that life would be immeasurably poorer without them. We pledge to fight ‘blue-sky thinking’ wherever we find it. Life would be dull if we had to look up at cloudless monotony day after day,” the Cloud Appreciation Society stated in their manifesto.

While over the years the Cloud Appreciation Society has collected 37,719 members since its inception 10 years ago, its biggest accomplishment happened in 2006 and is on the brink of world-wide recognition.

“It’s almost like a Hogwarts spell. Undulatus asperatus. What would that induce? An enchantment, perhaps, bewitching adults into thinking less negatively about clouds and restoring a childlike wonderment that sees them as ‘beautiful and ethereal?’” said Pinney in an article featured in the Guardian.

Pinney is talking about the Undulatus asperatus, a potential candidate to be the newest cloud formation since 1951. After receiving several photos from his online website, one of the first in 2006 from Jane Wiggins in Iowa, Pinney was confused on where to classify the Undulatus asperatus clouds.

“They struck me as being rather different from the normal undulates clouds. They were more turbulent, more confused — as if you were underneath the water looking up toward the surface when the sea is particularly disturbed and chaotic,” Pinney said in an article from the Verge. An undulate cloud is a type of cloud with ripples or a wavy outline.

Freshman Kaleigh Stanfield made a similar observation to Pinney’s.

“It almost looks like waves as if you were underwater. It looks like a storm cloud, and a bad omen,” Stanfield said.

Others see clouds in a whole different sky like freshman Maggie Newberry.

“Clouds are pretty generic. Most people know what clouds are, and I think that they are only significant if they are going to provide a big change, such as in the weather, or affect our daily lives,” Newberry said.

Pinney is pining for his cloud to make it into the WMO (World Meteorological Organization in Geneva) and its International Cloud Atlas to become official.

“A formation made up of well-defined, wavelike structures in the underside of the cloud, more chaotic and with less horizontal organization than undulatus. Asperatus is characterised by localized waves in the cloud base, either smooth or dappled with smaller features, sometimes descending into sharp points, as if viewing a roughened sea surface from below,” said a WMO task force in describing the Undulatus asperatus.

Pinney sees clouds as a chance to be aware of our natural surroundings.

“By naming things around us, it focuses our attention,”Pinney said. “When you know the names of different butterflies, you start to seeing them and paying attention to them. It’s the same with clouds. The motivation is to keep people engaged with the sky — paying attention to clouds and thinking of them as a beautiful and fascinating part of our surroundings.”

While it is still undetermined if the Undulatus asperatus will make the cut into what is perceived as the royalty line of cloud formations, Pinney’s mission is continuing by keeping his head in the clouds and getting people to appreciate clouds like him.

As stated in the Cloud Appreciation Society Manifesto, “Clouds are so commonplace that their beauty is often overlooked. They are for dreamers and their contemplation benefits the soul. Indeed, all who consider the shapes they see in them will save on psychoanalysis bills.And so we say to all who’ll listen: Look up, marvel at the ephemeral beauty, and live life with your head in the clouds!”

Membership into the Cloud Society can be found here. There is also a new Cloud Spotting App on the app store.