Clouds have fascinated and frightened shepherds and seafarers alike and now modern-day weather geeks have a new event to celebrate – the first updated international cloud atlas in six decades.

While the atlas was technically rejigged in 1975 and 1987 – with changes including mist being formally declared a form of fog – this week's release by the World Meteorological Organisation has added the first notable cloud changes since 1956, according to Michael Bruhn, one of the eight taskforce members.

The new changes, provided in a digital form for the first time, include new classification so clouds, such as the volutus – or roll cloud – that many Australians will know as the spectacular Morning Glory observed in the Gulf of Carpentaria.

Also new on the list of clouds is the asperitas, a beautiful undulated cloud that lobbyists from the aptly named Cloud Appreciation Society had been lobbying hard for.