Extreme Weather and Climate

Weather can be enjoyable, be merely tolerated or even change a good day to a bad one. On some occasions, it can become extreme and dramatically impact your life. Written in a friendly, easy-to-understand style, Ahrens/Samson/Reed's EXTREME WEATHER AND CLIMATE, 2nd Edition clearly explains the science of how hurricanes, tornadoes, lightning, floods and extreme temperatures can occur, how they can sometimes be life-changing and how they may be impacted by global climate change. Vividly illustrated, this text will give you a new appreciation for the power of nature.

Don Ahrens is an emeritus professor at Modesto Junior College in Modesto, California. He has influenced countless professionals in the field of atmospheric science as well as hundreds of thousands of students who use his books to better understand weather and climate. In 2007, the National Weather Association awarded him a lifetime achievement award for these accomplishments. The best-selling author of three Cengage texts -- METEOROLOGY TODAY, ESSENTIALS OF METEOROLOGY and EXTREME WEATHER AND CLIMATE -- Professor Ahrens received the Textbook and Academic Authors Association’s McGuffey Longevity Award for the 9th edition of METEOROLOGY TODAY. Professor Ahrens completed his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in meteorology at San Jose State University and his doctorate at the University of Northern Colorado.

Perry Samson is an emeritus professor of the Department of Climate and Space Sciences and Engineering at the University of Michigan. Samson holds the title of Arthur F. Thurmond Professor in recognition of "outstanding contributions to undergraduate education" and has been honored with the University of Michigan's Distinguished Innovator of the Year Award for his work on educational technologies. Professor Samson is passionate about studying extreme weather and has led teams of undergraduate students to study the formation of supercell thunderstorms in the Great Plains and make meteorological observations in Greenland. He also co-founded the popular weather website, The Weather Underground, and is a Fellow of the American Meteorological Society.

Kevin A. Reed is currently a professor in the School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences at Stony Brook University. Reed founded the Climate Extremes Modeling (CEM) Group, which focuses on investigating how extreme weather events may change in the coming decades due to climate change. Through this research, Reed has published over 80 scientific articles that have advanced our scientific understanding of the impacts of climate change. At the university, Reed regularly teaches a popular undergraduate course on extreme weather with over 500 students annually.