New cloud type? It would be 1st since '51

— -- It's an exciting time to have your head in the clouds.

Meteorologists are debating whether to seek formal recognition for the first new cloud variety since 1951, prompted in part by strange clouds photographed in 2006 by Jane Wiggins, a paralegal in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

She later posted the image she labeled "Armageddon" on the website of the Cloud Appreciation Society, an England-based group of more than 16,000 cloud enthusiasts created in 2005.

After several more photos of similar formations were posted on the site, society founder Gavin Pretor-Pinney asked the Royal Meteorological Society in Reading, England, if they depict a previously unclassified cloud type.

Wiggins' photo is part of the evidence meteorologists there are weighing as they decide whether to ask the World Meteorological Organization to recognize the undulatus asperatus, Latin for "turbulent undulation."

Pretor-Pinney, author of several books about clouds, says the find is exciting because it shows what "changing, amorphous, ephemeral things clouds are." The evolution of the Internet and digital cameras have created "a new perspective on the sky."

Paul Hardaker, Royal Meteorological Society chief executive, calls the clouds "astonishing. ... It's not every day you get a new cloud." A four-person committee is studying whether the clouds share key characteristics: wind, temperature and pressure.

If the panel concludes they are a distinct new cloud variety, the society will recommend that the World Meteorological Organization add them to its International Cloud Atlas.

Peggy LeMone, an atmospheric scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colo., saw a similar cloud formation 30 years ago in Missouri. "When I saw it I didn't know what to call it," she says.

The clouds might be caused by a moist layer of air above a dry layer without enough wind to mix the two, LeMone says.

Luke Howard, an English pharmacist, proposed the Latin naming system for clouds in the early 19th century. There are four main clouds types, with additional classifications that reflect their altitude and other characteristics. In all, Pretor-Pinney says, about 80 cloud varieties have been identified.