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.

A fresh and compelling look at wild and awesome examples of weather in this revised and updated book in the Wonders of Creation series! Did you know the hottest temperature ever recorded was 134° F (56.7° C) on July 10, 1913 in Death Valley, California? The highest recorded surface wind speed was in the May 3, 1999, Oklahoma tornado, measured at 302 mph (486 kph)! The most snow to fall in a one-year period is 102 feet (3,150 cm) at Mount Rainier, Washington, from February 19, 1971 to February 18, 1972! From the practical to the pretty amazing, this book gives essential details into understanding what weather is, how it works, and how other forces that impact on it. Learn why storm chasers and hurricane hunters do what they do and how they are helping to solve storm connected mysteries. Discover what makes winter storms both beautiful and deadly, as well as what is behind weather phenomena like St. Elmo’s Fire. Find important information on climate history and answers to the modern questions of supposed climate change. Get safety tips for preventing dangerous weather related injuries like those from lightning strikes, uncover why thunderstorms form, as well as what we know about the mechanics of a tornado and other extreme weather examples like flash floods, hurricanes and more. A fresh and compelling look at wild and awesome examples of weather in this revised and updated book in the Wonders of Creation series!

Learn the science behind weather and climate.

The history of the growth and professionalization of American meteorology and its transformation into a physics- and mathematics-based scientific discipline. For much of the first half of the twentieth century, meteorology was more art than science, dependent on an individual forecaster's lifetime of local experience. In Weather by the Numbers, Kristine Harper tells the story of the transformation of meteorology from a “guessing science” into a sophisticated scientific discipline based on physics and mathematics. What made this possible was the development of the electronic digital computer; earlier attempts at numerical weather prediction had foundered on the human inability to solve nonlinear equations quickly enough for timely forecasting. After World War II, the combination of an expanded observation network developed for military purposes, newly trained meteorologists, savvy about math and physics, and the nascent digital computer created a new way of approaching atmospheric theory and weather forecasting. This transformation of a discipline, Harper writes, was the most important intellectual achievement of twentieth-century meteorology, and paved the way for the growth of computer-assisted modeling in all the sciences.

Victorian Britain, with its maritime economy and strong links between government and scientific enterprises, founded an office to collect meteorological statistics in 1854 in an effort to foster a modern science of the weather. But as the office turned to prediction rather than data collection, the fragile science became a public spectacle, with its forecasts open to daily scrutiny in the newspapers. And meteorology came to assume a pivotal role in debates about the responsibility of scientists and the authority of science. Studying meteorology as a means to examine the historical identity of prediction, Katharine Anderson offers here an engrossing account of forecasting that analyzes scientific practice and ideas about evidence, the organization of science in public life, and the articulation of scientific values in Victorian culture. In Predicting the Weather, Anderson grapples with fundamental questions about the function, intelligibility, and boundaries of scientific work while exposing the public expectations that shaped the practice of science during this period. A cogent analysis of the remarkable history of weather forecasting in Victorian Britain, Predicting the Weather will be essential reading for scholars interested in the public dimensions of science.

How do meteorologists design forecasts for the next day's, the next week's, or the next month's weather? Are some forecasts more likely to be accurate than others, and why? Making Sense of Weather and Climate takes readers through key topics in atmospheric physics and presents a cogent view of how weather relates to climate, particularly climate-change science. It is the perfect book for amateur meteorologists and weather enthusiasts, and for anyone whose livelihood depends on navigating the weather's twists and turns. Making Sense of Weather and Climate begins by explaining the essential mechanics and characteristics of this fascinating science. The noted physics author Mark Denny also defines the crucial differences between weather and climate, and then develops from this basic knowledge a sophisticated yet clear portrait of their relation. Throughout, Denny elaborates on the role of weather forecasting in guiding politics and other aspects of human civilization. He also follows forecasting's effect on the economy. Denny's exploration of the science and history of a phenomenon we have long tried to master makes this book a unique companion for anyone who wants a complete picture of the environment's individual, societal, and planetary impact.

Will it be warm or cold? Should we wear shorts or pants? Shoes or rain boots? This picture book explores why the weather can be so hard to predict. Now rebranded with a new cover look, this classic picture book uses colorful, simple diagrams to explain meteorology in a fun, engaging way. Perfect for young readers and budding meteorologists, this bestseller is filled with rich climate vocabulary and clear explanations of everyday weather instruments like thermometers and barometers. Both text and artwork were vetted for accuracy by Dr. Sean Birkel of the Climate Change Institute at the University of Maine. This is a Level 2 Let's-Read-and-Find-Out, which means the book explores more challenging concepts perfect for children in the primary grades and supports the Common Core Learning Standards and Next Generation Science Standards. Let's-Read-and-Find-Out is the winner of the American Association for the Advancement of Science/Subaru Science Books & Films Prize for Outstanding Science Series.

Extreme Weather Forecasting reviews current knowledge about extreme weather events, including key elements and less well-known variables to accurately forecast them. The book covers multiple temporal scales as well as components of current weather forecasting systems. Sections cover case studies on successful forecasting as well as the impacts of extreme weather predictability, presenting a comprehensive and model agnostic review of best practices for atmospheric scientists and others who utilize extreme weather forecasts. - Reviews recent developments in numerical prediction for better forecasting of extreme weather events - Covers causes and mechanisms of high impact extreme events and how to account for these variables when forecasting - Includes numerous case studies on successful forecasting, outlining why they worked

"This big picture history of atmospheric research examines the first six decades of the twentieth century, from the dawn of applied fluid dynamics to the emergence, by 1960, of the interdisciplinary atmospheric sciences. Using newly available archival sources, it documents the work of three interconnected generations of scientists: Vilhelm Bjerknes, Carl-Gustaf Rossby, and Harry Wexler, whose aspirations were fueled by new theoretical insights, pressing societal needs, and expanded technological capabilities. Radio, radar, aviation, nuclear tracers, digital computing, sounding rockets, and satellites provided new ways to measure and study the global atmosphere -- a huge and dauntingly complex system. Bjerknes brought us a fundamental circulation theorem and founded the Bergen school of weather forecasting; Rossby established the graduate schools of meteorology at M.I.T., Chicago, and Stockholm, which focused on upper-air dynamics and, after 1947, on atmospheric environmental issues; and Wexler brought all the new technologies into the U.S. Weather Bureau and, with his colleague Jule Charney, prepared the foundations for the emergence of the interdisciplinary atmospheric sciences. This history weaves together cold war studies, military history, the rise of government research and development, and aviation and aeronautics with a nascent global awareness. It is a fascinating history of something we all experience--the weather --told through compelling historical characters"--Provided by publisher.