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.

Looks at hurricanes, how they form, the effects they can have, and how to stay safe.

"Explores careers in weather science using several examples of real-life scientists"--Provided by publisher.

From the heart of tornado alley, Smith takes us into the eye of America's most devastating storms and behind the scenes of some of the world's most renowned scientific institutions to uncover the relationship between mankind and the weather.

Are you fascinated by wind, tornadoes, and hurricanes? Do you wish you could chase them? Then maybe a career in weather science is for you! Through interviews and stories of exciting—and terrifying—encounters with actual storms, you'll learn what these storm chasers do, how they study the weather, and what they can learn from it.

Describes the work of Robin Tanamachi, a storm chaser who studies how tornadoes form, detailing her team's work in a Doppler radar truck to obtain data that may enable lifesaving discoveries.

Female and male brains are different, thanks to hormones coursing through the brain before birth. That’s taught as fact in psychology textbooks, academic journals, and bestselling books. And these hardwired differences explain everything from sexual orientation to gender identity, to why there aren’t more women physicists or more stay-at-home dads. In this compelling book, Rebecca Jordan-Young takes on the evidence that sex differences are hardwired into the brain. Analyzing virtually all published research that supports the claims of “human brain organization theory,” Jordan-Young reveals how often these studies fail the standards of science. Even if careful researchers point out the limits of their own studies, other researchers and journalists can easily ignore them because brain organization theory just sounds so right. But if a series of methodological weaknesses, questionable assumptions, inconsistent definitions, and enormous gaps between ambiguous findings and grand conclusions have accumulated through the years, then science isn’t scientific at all. Elegantly written, this book argues passionately that the analysis of gender differences deserves far more rigorous, biologically sophisticated science. “The evidence for hormonal sex differentiation of the human brain better resembles a hodge-podge pile than a solid structure...Once we have cleared the rubble, we can begin to build newer, more scientific stories about human development.”

Are you fascinated by wind, tornadoes, and hurricanes? Do you wish you could chase them? Then maybe a career in weather science is for you! Through interviews and stories of exciting—and terrifying—encounters with actual storms, you'll learn what these storm chasers do, how they study the weather, and what they can learn from it.

One of the leading environmental journalists and bloggers working today, Chris Mooney delves into a red-hot debate in global meteorology and weather forecasting: whether the increasing ferocity and frequency of hurricanes are connected to global warming. In the wake of Katrina, Mooney follows the lives and careers of the two leading scientists on either side of the debate through the 2006 hurricane season, tracing how government, the media, big business, and politics influence the ways in which weather patterns are predicted, charted, and even defined. Mooney written a fascinating and urgently compelling book that calls into question the great inconvenient truth of our day: Are we responsible for making hurricanes even bigger monsters than they already are?

The ultimate inside story of the Katrina tragedy—from the cofounder of the LSU Hurricane Center After warning for years about the looming threat of catastrophic flooding in New Orleans, Ivor van Heerden was one of the highest-profile media experts during the Katrina disaster. Over the following eighteen months, he was even more prominent as he challenged the official version of those events and campaigned for an engineering plan that would protect all of southeastern Louisiana, once and for all. In The Storm, van Heerden lays out in full detail the stunning incompetence among the bureaucrats, the politicians, and the Army Corps of Engineers that culminated in the catastrophe that crippled, perhaps forever, a great American city.