Cloud classification goes all the way back to 1802, when British pharmacist Luke Howard first presented his paper, "On the modification of clouds”, in which many of the classifications we use today were first proposed, including cirrus, cumulus, stratus, and Nimbus. Almost a hundred years later, the colossal International Cloud Atlas was published, organising all known cloud types into four levels of classification, under which they’re grouped into a genre, species, and variety, sort of like how animals and plants are scientifically classified. This book is now the global standard for cloud classification, and since 1975, when the last edition was published, there has not been a significant change or addition to the classification system of clouds.
"Fortunately, the World Meteorological Organization is currently in the process of preparing the first new edition of the International Cloud Atlas in four decades. Finally, the Atlas will be available online - the clouds are coming to the cloud,” (...).