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 Nino, His Cool Sister, and Their Kissing Cousins 134 Is El Nino a bad boy? 135 The El Nino look 135 La Nina, the contrary sister 138 The La Nina 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 Nino 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
