Luke Howard --"The Godfather of Clouds"

From Luke Howard's Sketch Book

The story of Luke Howard, a very special person who loved and named clouds.
 Cloudman Foreword
I have been involved with clouds in a serious professional way for six decades. As seen in
the bio profile, during the first decade I was a weather forecaster for the young and
expanding Pan American World airways as it pioneered air routes to the Orient and to
New Zealand and Australia, using the Martin and Boeing four engine flying boats -- the
Clippers. During the last five decades I have been teaching and writing about meteorology
in a college setting.
Looking back, it seems quite odd that Luke Howard was only a name to me until the '70s. I
suppose I read somewhere, perhaps in a cloud atlas, that "Luke Howard, English
manufacturing chemist, originally proposed the names "Cumulus, Stratus, Nimbus and
Cirrus" but I knew little about Howard the man. On the other hand, this is not odd at all,
for there is very little written about Howard in meteorological literature that is read by the
ordinary student, or by the general public. Through this medium, I hope we can do a little
bit to change this.
My situation changed in 1971 when, through a sabbatical leave from my (Linfield) college,
I was able to spend some months in the British Meteorological office science library, locate
in Bracknell some 50 miles SW of London. During this period I read extensively and
became intimately acquainted with the history of clouds and cloud atlases, and inevitably
with Luke Howard and his contributions to the infant science of meteorology, and, in
particular, to the establishment of cloud nomenclature.
The Howard I came to know was a many-faceted man. He was a "whole" man. His love of
clouds, and weather, started at an early age and never diminished. He was not a scientist
and never pretended to be one. He trained for, and became, a businessman, developing a
firm that manufactured pharmaceutical chemicals: Howards and Sons Ltd. The study of
weather, begun as a schoolboy, was close to his heart and continued for a lifetime. Because
of his many contributions to the emerging science of meteorology, in 1821 he was made a
Fellow of the Royal Society, the highest honor his peers could confer. He was a lifelong
member of the Society of Friends (the Quakers) and devoted much energy and time to the
good works of this denomination. He was a devoted family man. He was a prolific writer
and editor. His Seven lectures in Meteorology comprised the first textbook in weather. His
Climate of London was the first book in urban climatology.
The Howard I came to know was a many-faceted man.
He was a "whole" man. His love of clouds, and
weather, started at an early age and never diminished.
He was not a scientist and never pretended to be one.
He trained for, and became, a businessman,
developing a firm that manufactured pharmaceutical
chemicals: Howards and Sons Ltd. The study of
weather, begun as a schoolboy, was close to his heart
and continued for a lifetime. Because of his many
contributions to the emerging science of meteorology,
in 1821 he was made a Fellow of the Royal Society, the
highest honor his peers could confer. He was a lifelong
member of the Society of Friends (the Quakers) and
devoted much energy and time to the good works of
this denomination. He was a devoted family man. He
was a prolific writer and editor. His Seven lectures in
Meteorology comprised the first textbook in weather.
His Climate of London was the first book in urban
climatology.
Luke Howard properly earned the right to be called
the Godfather of Clouds.
Through the following 3 short essays, it is my hope
that many readers will come to appreciate this early
Cloudman.

Luke Howard, F.R.S. (1772-1864)

From a Painting by John Opie