"read the atmosphere" is a correct and usable phrase in written English.
It means to sense or understand the mood or atmosphere of a situation or environment. It can be used in a variety of contexts, such as in a social setting or a workplace. Example: Before making a joke, it's important to read the atmosphere and make sure that it is appropriate and won't offend anyone.
When the envelope was opened and Marshall's name was read out, the atmosphere soured, just like that.
But the quiet atmosphere leaves me time to relax, read the newspaper and collect my thoughts.
When I read this out, the atmosphere became rather uncomfortable.
While it's difficult to display poetry and books in a space, the sound of recorded poems being read occasionally disturbed the atmosphere.
Whatever devotion may mean to you, chances are that once you read those words, the atmosphere in the space will feel, however subtly, charged, the objects alive and purposeful, awake.
In the Monk's Parlour, an eerie, dark corner of the spooky crypt where Soane arranged medieval fragments to create an atmosphere fit for reading the ghost stories then coming into fashion, sits a grotesque golden chair.
The atmosphere thus created should protect me in the eventuality of me reading the joke.
(For some insight into how a song enters the atmosphere, read Alan Light's recent book "The Holy or the Broken," in which he examines the rather unlikely ascent of Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah").. On Friday night, Katy Perry and Kacey Musgraves will add another version of "I Can't Make You Love Me" to the pile when their episode of CMT's "Crossroads" premieres.
The hotel also renovated its French patisserie and Moorish-style tea salon; both are comfortable places to soak up the atmosphere while reading "Murder on the Orient Express".
The Local Courts Bill, to be introduced next week, reads: "Any person who vitiates the atmosphere in any place so as to make it noxious to the public to the health of persons in general dwelling or carrying on business in the neighbourhood or passing along a public way shall be guilty of a misdemeanor".
