View at EarthSky Community Photos. | Cecille Kennedy captured this image on August 19, 2025, in Oregon. Cecille wrote: “A patch of cirrocumulus clouds appeared in the late afternoon. Each cirrocumulus element in the patch is referred to as a cloudlet. Cirrocumulus clouds are sometimes called “mackerel clouds” because their appearance resembles the patterns on a mackerel fish’s skin when they are arranged in rows with a rippled or patchy appearance.” Thank you, Cecille! And today, September 11, 2026, is International Cloud Appreciation Day.
September 11, 2026, is Cloud Appreciation Day. The international online event is organized by the Cloud Appreciation Society, which has more than 60,000 members in 120 countries. And their Memory Cloud Atlas website goes live today, Friday September 11, at one minute after midnight your local time. It’s a place where anyone around the world can upload an image of their sky on Cloud Appreciation Day. First, they locate themselves on a map and share what they feel about the sky and the clouds.
According to the Cloud Appreciation Society:
Once a year, on Cloud Appreciation Day, people from around the world pause to look up. They capture their sky and describe how it makes them feel, creating a shared, emotional snapshot of our planet’s atmosphere. Cloud Appreciation Day is on Friday September 11th, 2026, when anyone anywhere can take a photo of their sky and submit it for free to our Memory Cloud Atlas.
Last year thousands of images were uploaded to the 2025 atlas and can be viewed here. You can check out previous years’ images as well: the 2024 atlas, the 2023 atlas and the ones from 2022 as well.
Enjoy some beautiful clouds from our own EarthSky Community Photos below, and also read a book review of Gavin Pretor-Pinney’s book “A Cloud a Day” in our column Media we love.
View at EarthSky Community Photos. | Jean-Baptiste Feldmann in Gleizé, France, captured these noctilucent – or night-shining – clouds on July 13, 2024. Jean-Baptiste wrote: “Impressive festival of noctilucent clouds a little before 5 in the morning, while I was finishing my planetary observations with the telescope. I had never seen noctilucents with such intensity before. A real treat!” Thank you, Jean-Baptiste!View at EarthSky Community Photos. | Ross Stone captured this image in California on July 31, 2024. Ross wrote: “When I saw this gigantic cumulonimbus cloud I had to pull off to the side of the road and take out my camera. I absolutely love the summertime clouds.” Thank you, Ross!
Additional cloud gallery from EarthSky Community members
Of course, there are star clouds in the Milky Way. View at EarthSky Community Photos. | Mary Ditchie near Santa Margarita, California, captured this image on August 11, 2023. Mary wrote: “The town of Santa Margarita glows on the horizon through some clouds. The night sky was very clear there and the Milky Way showed up brilliantly next to an old oak tree.” Thank you, Mary! How many stars can you see in the night sky? Good luck counting all those!View at EarthSky Community Photos. | David Hawkes captured this image on June 27, 2026, in England. David wrote: “Took some lovely photos of the evening sky, these look like noctilucent clouds to me.” They sure do, David! Thank you.
Bottom line: Cloud Appreciation Day is September 11, 2026. Enjoy this gallery of beautiful clouds and share your own with the Cloud Appreciation Society and us!
Kelly Kizer Whitt writes and edits some of the most fascinating stories at EarthSky.org. She's been writing about science, with a focus on astronomy, for decades. She began her career at Astronomy Magazine and made regular contributions to other outlets, including AstronomyToday and the Sierra Club. She has nine published books, including a children's picture book, Solar System Forecast, and a young adult dystopian novel, A Different Sky.
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