CLOUDS: How to Identify Nature’s Most Fleeting Forms, by Edward Graham, Princeton University Press, 2025, 224 pp., 140 colour illustrations, 8.5 × 10.5 in., $29.95/£25.00 (hardcover), ISBN: 978-0-691-26248-2

In the arid southern areas of my country-a land where water is a matter of utmost necessityevery drop becomes a source of life: to quench thirst, irrigate fields, or prevent illness.Here, people have long learned to read the sky in a unique way.Clouds are divided into two main types: those that are full, bearing rain, and those that are empty.Rainfall is often estimated like a handwritten letter drawn across the sky, inked by the clouds.These messages are frequently interpreted with accuracya skill shaped by experience and the vital need for water.These practices have become increasingly difficult today, as the clouds themselves are now less and less visibleveiled, distorted, or erased by rising air pollution.In certain peri-urban areas of the Global South, especially around major cities such as Delhi, Lagos, Cairo, or even Casablanca, my city, skies that were once readable are now darkened by fine particles, industrial smoke, and suspended dust.Communication with the sky now happens only through the filters of advanced technology.Some rural or still-preserved regionsat higher altitudes or away from major industrial flowsstill manage to read the signs above, but for how much longer?As this fragile tradition stands on the verge of being lost, Edward Graham seeks, with clarity and beauty, to revive the silent dialogue between sky and earth.Through an exceptional blend of scientific rigour and artistic sensitivity, he works to preserve this intangible heritage.This is not merely a book on meteorology, but a sensitive guide to recognizing, naming, and understanding cloudsthose transient figures we encounter each day without always knowing how to read them.The book traces the origins of the atmosphere and cloud formation, clearly explaining the physical laws, the composition of air, and the essential role of water vapour (pp.14-23).It classifies clouds with precisionby type, species, and varietyand provides several practical tables, superb illustrations (pp.