We have analyzed a full month of daily and hourly satellite infrared data covering the Central Pacific, with an eye to identifying and characterizing self-similar behavior of the cloud variability. It is found that the cloud outgoing longwave radiation field exhibits anomalous scaling, with parameters that are quite consistent across a broad range of synoptic situations. The presence of anomalous scaling means that, although the cloud field exhibits spatially self-similar behavior, the power spectrum alone is not sufficient to characterize the spatial structure of cloud variability. The scaling laws do not conform to what would be expected from passive scalar advection/diffusion, but they do closely resemble the scaling laws for temperature fluctuations in a turbulent convecting layer. ¿ American Geophysical Union 1996