Explains how to track weather patterns, read weather maps, and identify cloud formations while exploring the effects of pollution, hurricanes, and El Niäno.

This reference traces the region's 400-year recorded hurricane history, from Jamestown to the present, drawing on accounts in newspaper articles, books, private journals, and interviews. Emphasizing the human side of a hurricane's aftermath rather than scientific aspects, each hurricane account tells how individuals and communities reacted to the storms. Storms are profiled in year-by-year entries from the 1600's to the current century.

Was Sandy a freak of nature, or the new normal? On October 29, 2012, Hurricane Sandy reached the shores of the northeastern United States to become one of the most destructive storms in history. But was Sandy a freak event, or should we have been better prepared for it? Was it a harbinger of things to come as the climate warms? In this fascinating and accessible work of popular science, atmospheric scientist and Columbia University professor Adam Sobel addresses these questions, combining his deep knowledge of the climate with his firsthand experience of the event itself. Sobel explains the remarkable atmospheric conditions that gave birth to Sandy and determined its path. He gives us insight into the science that led to the accurate forecasts of the storm from genesis to landfall, as well as an understanding of why our meteorological vocabulary failed our leaders in warning us about this unprecedented weather system—part hurricane, part winter-type nor'easter, fully deserving of the title "Superstorm." Storm Surge brings together the melting glaciers, the warming oceans, and a broad historical perspective to explain how our changing climate and developing coastlines are making New York and other cities more vulnerable. Engaging, informative, and timely, Sobel's book provokes us to think differently about how we can better prepare for the storms in our future.

Globally growing demand of energy and mineral resources, reliable future projection of climate processes and the protection of coasts to mitigate the threats of disasters and hazards require a comprehensive understanding of the structure, ongoing processes and genesis of the marine geosphere. Beyond the “classical” research fields in marine geology in current time more general concepts have been evolved integrating marine geophysics, hydrography, marine biology, climatology and ecology. As an umbrella the term “marine geosciences” has been broadly accepted for this new complex field of research and the solutions of practical tasks in the marine realm. The “Encyclopedia of Marine Geosciences” comprises the current knowledge in marine geosciences whereby not only basic but also applied and technical sciences are covered. Through this concept a broad scale of users in the field of marine sciences and techniques is addressed from students and scholars in academia to engineers and decision makers in industry and politics.

"Examines the science behind hurricanes, including how and where tropical storms form, the various types of tropical storms, how scientists track hurricanes, and provides hurricane safety tips"--Provided by publisher.

A panoramic social history of hurricanes in the Caribbean The diverse cultures of the Caribbean have been shaped as much by hurricanes as they have by diplomacy, commerce, or the legacy of colonial rule. In this panoramic work of social history, Stuart Schwartz examines how Caribbean societies have responded to the dangers of hurricanes, and how these destructive storms have influenced the region's history, from the rise of plantations, to slavery and its abolition, to migrations, racial conflict, and war. Taking readers from the voyages of Columbus to the devastation of Hurricane Katrina, Schwartz looks at the ethical, political, and economic challenges that hurricanes posed to the Caribbean’s indigenous populations and the different European peoples who ventured to the New World to exploit its riches. He describes how the United States provided the model for responding to environmental threats when it emerged as a major power and began to exert its influence over the Caribbean in the nineteenth century, and how the region’s governments came to assume greater responsibilities for prevention and relief, efforts that by the end of the twentieth century were being questioned by free-market neoliberals. Schwartz sheds light on catastrophes like Katrina by framing them within a long and contentious history of human interaction with the natural world. Spanning more than five centuries and drawing on extensive archival research in Europe and the Americas, Sea of Storms emphasizes the continuing role of race, social inequality, and economic ideology in the shaping of our responses to natural disaster.