Extreme Weather: A Guide & Record Book - Softcover

Christopher C. Burt

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0393326586 ISBN 13: 9780393326581

Publisher: W W Norton & Co Inc, 2004

Synopsis

A lavishly illustrated resource on some of history's most severe or unusual weather systems includes examples of electrified dust storms, pink snowstorms, luminous tornadoes, ball lightning, falls of fish and toads, and more, in a volume that features dozens of color maps and weather record tables for more than three hundred U.S. cities. Original. 20,000 first printing.

About this title

About the Author

Christopher C. Burt was co-founder and publisher of the acclaimed Compass American Guidebook series. A lifelong weather enthusiast, he studied meteorology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. This is his first book. He lives in Oakland, California.

Reviews

Adult/High School - This book has enough information packed within its pages to keep the most ardent weather watchers busy. Chapters are arranged by such phenomena as thunderstorms and hail, snow and ice, windstorms and fog, etc., and liberally illustrated with beautiful black-and-white and color photographs, charts, and maps. True "junkies" will pore over the appendixes that include a map of weather stations and state and city precipitation records. In the course of discussing each type of occurrence, Burt offers numerous items of interest. For example, Key West has only one foggy day each year, while the "foggiest of the foggy" towns in the U.S. is Cape Disappointment at the mouth of the Columbia River. Mysteries such as why most other countries in the world, with the possible exception of India and Bangladesh, do not experience as many severe thunderstorms as the United States does are clearly explained. Discussions of scales such as the Fujita, used to measure the strength of a tornado, and the Saffir-Simpson, used to measure hurricanes, are included. Eyewitness accounts are scattered throughout. This book will captivate weather lovers and make converts of others. - Peggy Bercher, Fairfax County Public Library, VA
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Weather-watchers will rejoice in this lavishly illustrated compendium of the hottest, coldest, wettest, driest, windiest, snowiest, wildest and weirdest weather on the planet. Burt, an amateur meteorologist and publisher of the Compass American Guidebook series, explores extreme weather phenomena in digestible mini-essays complemented by sidebars on such oddities as colored snow and luminous tornadoes. The whole is supplemented by maps, lists of destructive storms, and photos of towering thunderheads, raging floodwaters and the devastated remains of human settlement. The focus is on the United States, thunderstorm and tornado capital of the world thanks to the Great Plains collision between warm, moist Gulf air and cool, dry Canadian air. But Burt also looks at meteorological problem areas abroad, such as Bangladesh, where cyclonic storm surges killed 300,000–500,000 people in 1970 and a further 139,000 in 1991. In addition to regaling readers with prodigies, Burt exhaustively tabulates weather records for each state and for hundreds of U.S. cities. Although his discussion of the science behind the weather tends toward the cursory, this eminently browsable blizzard of sensational facts will delight budding meteorologists and barroom wagerers alike.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Edition details

• Publisher: W W Norton & Co Inc
• Publication date: 2004
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0393326586
• ISBN 13: 9780393326581
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 304