It's not a new kind of cloud, just a rare one that just got its name: Asperatus. "Asperatus comes from the Latin verb aspero, meaning "to roughen up" or "agitate". The poet Vergil used it to describe the surface of a choppy sea."
The Royal Meteorological Society is now gathering detailed information for the days and locations where the asperatus clouds have been seen in an attempt to understand exactly what is causing them.
Officials will then apply to the UN's World Meteorological Organisation in Geneva to have the new cloud type considered for addition into the International Cloud Atlas, the system used by meteorologists across the globe.