Weather feels: New Met Office animations hit top spot at GIPHY

How do you feel about the weather today? If you want, you can share that emotion with your social media circles with one of the 27 moving meteorological moments now available from the UK's Met Office on GIPHY.com. The animations, which all feature a cute cloud character called Christopher Cumulonimbus, were created by the Manchester creative studio Flow and, at the time of writing, are trending in first place on the GIPHY homepage with over 450 million views.

It's all part of an initiative by the Met Office – one of the world's leading authorities on the weather – to reach new audiences. The animations are a great way to get people talking about the weather. The organisation had been talking to Flow about a possible collaboration for some time, and this project seemed the perfect fit.

"They wanted a set of GIFs that would appeal to a younger demographic," explains Flow cofounder and creative director Karl Doran. "The style we developed had to work in GIF form and needed to stand out when it would be used on socials. So, the style had to be fairly minimal in design but detailed enough to allow us to convey emotions and humour. We also had to keep the characters within the Met Office brand colours."

The visual route chosen chimes a little with the vector graphic cloud, rain, and sun icons seen in most weather apps and on TV weather maps, but it introduces more nuance with shading, rougher edges, and all the expressiveness animation can bring. Christopher Cumulonimbus doesn't just represent different types of weather; he captures how the weather makes us feel.

During the development process, three potential character concepts were tested – a cloud, a walrus, and a duck – and it's interesting that Christopher wasn't the first choice initially.

"We fought hard for the Walrus!" says Karl. "We felt it conveyed a sense of British stoicism to the weather. Ultimately, when we properly sat down and developed the style, the cloud proved to be a more relatable and nuanced character. The cloud allowed us to have it more integrated with the different types of weather we wanted to depict compared to the other two. The duck and walrus would have just been reactive to the weather, whereas the cloud's emotions could depict the weather."

The look, feel, and content of the GIFs take the Met Office in a new direction in terms of communication. However, Christopher has already become something of a mascot for the organisation.

"We are delighted to have been working closely with the amazing team at Flow to launch an exclusive animated sticker pack, made in collaboration with GIPHY, for launch on our ever-expanding channel. The bright, colourful set features a loveable cloud character designed to make you laugh, smile and share in those moments when weather impacts how you feel," says Ross Middleham, creative lead at the Met Office.