Table of Contents
Introduction 1 About This Book 1
Foolish Assumptions 2
How This Book is Organized 2
Part 1: What in the World is Weather? 3
Part 2: Braving the Elements 3
Part 3: Some Seasonable Explanations 4
Part 4: The Special Effects 4
Part 5: The Part of Tens 4
Appendix 5
Icons Used in This Book 5
Where to Go from Here 6
Part 1: What in the World is Weather? 7
Chapter 1: Forecasts and Forecasting 9
Forecasting Prophets 10
Making a Forecast 11
Take what is happening now 13
And add a little future 14
“We Interrupt This Program ” 16
Water, Water, Everywhere 18
Flavors of Forecasts 18
Agricultural forecasts 19
Aviation forecasts 19
Marine forecasts 20
River forecasts 20
Fire forecasts 21
Keywords to the Wise 21
Precipitation 21
Temperature 23
Temperature’s relative humidity 24
Heat index 25
Wind 27
Wind chill 28
Sky cover 28
Tools of the Trade 29
The instruments 29
The instrument carriers 30
Doppler radar 32
A fleet of satellites 33
Computers 35
How to Read a Weather Map 36
Chapter 2: Behind the Air Wars 37
I Don’t Like Your Latitude! 37
Where the Armies Mass 39
Winter air masses 41
Summer air masses 42
News from the Fronts 42
Cold fronts 43
Warm fronts 43
Stationary fronts 44
Occluded fronts 44
Here Comes the Sun 45
Moving Sun’s energy 45
Looking absolutely radiant! 46
A contagious convection 49
The Big Picture 50
Long live the revolution! 50
Spreading the beam 51
Tilting at the seasons 53
Spin of the day 55
Putting on Airs 56
Do I smell gas? 56
How high the sky? 59
Chapter 3: Land, Sea, and Precipitation: is This Any Way to Run a Planet? 61
Water’s Stirring Role 62
Ocean to atmosphere 64
Atmosphere to surface 65
Surface to ocean 66
Rain to Rime: Forms of Precipitation 67
Rain 68
Snow 69
Hail 70
Graupel (snow pellets) 70
Sleet (ice pellet) 71
Rime 71
Dew to Fog: Forms of Condensation 72
Dew 72
Frozen dew 72
Frost 73
Fog: A grounded cloud 73
Weather and the Land 75
A lopsided planet 75
Radiating hot and cold 75
Air’s roller-coaster ride 76
Weather and the Ocean 77
Part 2: Braving the Elements 79
Chapter 4: Blowing in the Winds 81
Taking the Pressure 82
A World of Wind and Pressure 83
That muggy Bermuda High 85
That cool Pacific High 85
The winter lows 87
Bending the Winds 87
Taking the pressure — it’s a gas 87
Here’s the rub — total friction 89
A perfectly straight curveball 91
The Winds Aloft 94
The Westerlies 94
The Jet Streams 96
Polar jet stream 96
Subtropical jet stream 97
Low-level jets 97
The Tradewinds 97
A Scattering of Winds 98
Coastal breezes 99
Valley and mountain breezes 99
Asian monsoon 99
Southwestern monsoon 101
Chinooks 101
Santa Anas 101
Haboobs 102
Chapter 5: Getting Cirrus 103
Making Clouds: The Heavy Lifting 104
Heating up 104
Crowd control 105
Frontal assaults 105
Over the top 105
A Question of Stability 108
Clouds by Class 109
High clouds 110
Middle clouds 113
Low clouds 115
Vertical clouds 118
Special clouds 119
Clouds of the stratosphere 122
Chapter 6: Climate is What You Expect; Weather is What You Get 125
Climate or Weather? 126
Climates of the World 126
What Makes Climates Different? 128
Climate and the Seasons 130
A climate of mystery 130
“It’s the ocean, stupid” 132
Pacific Body Parts 132
The Warm Pool 133
The Cold Tongue 134
El Niño, His Cool Sister, and Their Kissing Cousins 134
Is El Niño a bad boy? 135
The El Niño look 135
La Niña, the contrary sister 138
The La Niña look 139
Climate’s kissing cousins 140
Climates of the Past 141
Long warm ages 142
Short ice ages 143
Medieval warm period 143
Little ice age 145
A warming trend 146
Chapter 7: The Greatest Storms On Earth 147
Breeding Grounds 148
Mysteries 150
Birth of a Hurricane 151
Disturbance to depression 152
Storm to hurricane 152
Bad big weapons 153
Storm surge 153
Winds 154
Tornadoes 155
Flooding rainfall 155
Signals of the seasons 156
Cruise’n for a Bruise’n 159
Satellites 159
Aircraft 160
Radar 160
Computer models 160
Coming Ashore But Where? 161
The Big Picture 161
Tracking the track 162
In Harm’s Way 163
Barrier islands 164
Playing it safe 165
The overwarning problem 165
Hurricane Force 166
Part 3: Some Seasonable Explanations 169
Chapter 8: The Ways of Winter 171
Winter’s “Official” First Day 172
It’s a Temperature Thing 173
Coast to Coast 174
Storms of Winter 177
A storm is born 178
Working out the wrinkles 179
Catching the waves 182
Riding the conveyor belt 182
Where They Come From 184
Where They Go 185
Name That Storm 187
Alberta Clipper 187
Hatteras bomb 187
Colorado Low 187
Gulf Low 188
Chattanooga Choo-choo 188
Nor’easter 188
Pineapple Express 190
Siberian Express 190
Panhandle Hook 190
Texas Panhandler 191
Blue Norther 191
When the Flakes Fly 191
Blizzards 194
Ice Storms 196
Life and Limb 197
Cold weather exposure 198
Frostbite 198
Caught in a car 199
Chapter 9: Twists and Turns of Spring 201
When Has Spring Sprung? 202
Coast to Coast 203
Thunderstorms 204
How exactly “severe”? 206
Shapes and sizes 207
Supercell 212
Hail the Size of Hailstones 214
Flash Floods 215
ZAP! Crack! Bam! 216
Rumbles and claps 218
Different strokes 219
Lightning safety tips 219
Downbursts 220
Really Twisted Winds 222
Tornado Alley 224
Forecasting 226
Lives and Limbs 228
A watch or a warning? 230
Tornado do’s — and nots! 230
Chapter 10: Extremely Summer 233
Good Ol’ Summer Timing 234
Coast to Coast 235
Avoiding That Radiant Feeling 238
The Heat is On 239
Heatwaves 241
Stranded on crowded islands 243
Storms of Summer 244
Out of Whack 246
When It Rains Too Much 247
When It Rains Too Little 250
Chapter 11: Falling for Autumn 255
The Timing Thing 256
Falling Highs and Lows 256
Coast to Coast 257
In a Pigment’s Eye 258
Indian Summer 259
In the Fogs 260
Fires of the Wild West 261
Part 4: The Special Effects 263
Chapter 12: Taking Care of the Air 265
Polluting the Air 266
The short and long of it 267
The usual suspects 268
Getting the drift 270
Acid rain 270
The Hole in the Sky 272
The ozone-eaters 273
On the mend? 274
The Big Warm 275
On the natural 276
On the unnatural 278
The global warming picture 279
The global warming debate 280
The heat is on 281
A splash of cold water 282
Wild and crazy 282
Chapter 13: Up in the Sky! Look! 285
Seeing the Light 286
In Living Color 287
Why the Sky is Blue 287
Reflecting on Clouds 288
Silver Linings 289
Blue Haze 290
Sunbeams 290
Sunrise, Sunset 291
The Green Flash 293
Rainbows 293
Haloes 295
Sun Dogs 296
Sun Pillars 296
Coronas 297
Glories 298
Mirages 298
Inferior mirage 299
Superior mirage 299
Twinkle, Twinkle Little Air 299
Auroras 300
Chapter 14: Try This at Home 301
You’re Not Just an Amateur 301
Galileo and the Boys 302
Galileo’s thermometer 303
Torricelli’s barometer 303
Cardinal de Cusa’s hygrometer 304
Early American Weathermen 304
George did it 305
Tom did it 305
Ben did it all 306
Watching Your Weather 307
Getting Fancy 307
Going instrumental 308
Going digital 309
Cool Weather Experiments 310
Making rainbows 310
Bending light by refraction 310
Bending light by diffraction 312
Weighing in on air 312
Testing the pressure 313
The greenhouse effect 313
Cloud in a can 314
A bottle of fog 314
Part 5: The Part of Tens 315
Chapter 15: Ten (or So) Biggest U.S Weather Disasters of the 20th Century 317
The Galveston Hurricane 318
The Dust Bowl 318
Super Tornado Outbreak, 1974 319
Hurricane Camille 319
The Great Midwest Flood 320
El Niño Episodes 320
Hurricane Andrew, 1992 321
New England Hurricane, 1938 321
Superstorm, March 1993 321
Tri-State Tornado, 1925 322
Tornado Outbreak of May 1999 322
The Great Okeechobee Flood and Hurricane of 1928 323
Florida Keys Hurricane, 1935 323
New England Blizzard, 1978 323
Storm of the Century, 1950 324
Chapter 16: Ten (or So) Worst World Weather Disasters of the 20th Century 325
Droughts 326
India 326
China 326
Soviet Union 326
Africa 327
Floods 327
China 327
Vietnam 327
Iran 327
Typhoons, Cyclones, and Hurricanes 327
Bangladesh 328
China 328
Honduras 328
Japan 328
Philippines 329
Winter Storms 329
Iran 329
Europe 329
Pollution 329
Donora 329
London 330
Chapter 17: Ten Crafty Critters 331
Cats 332
Dogs 332
Frogs 333
Ants 333
Birds 333
Caterpillars 334
Squirrels 334
Groundhog 335
Livestock 335
Fish 336
Chapter 18: Ten Grand Old Weather Proverbs 337
Red Sky at Night, Sailor’s Delight 338
Clear Moon, Frost Soon 338
Early Thunder, Early Spring 338
After Frost, Warm 339
Mare’s Tails and Mackerel Scales 339
Rainbow in the Morning 339
When Halo Rings the Moon 340
Rain Long Foretold 340
A Year of Snow, a Year of Plenty 340
In Like a Lion and Out Like a Lamb 341
Appendix: Internet Resource Directory 343
Index 351
