Hurricane Watch
Forecasting the Deadliest Storms on Earth
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4.0 • 1 Rating
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- $4.99
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- $4.99
Publisher Description
The ultimate guide to the ultimate storms, Hurricane Watch is a fascinating blend of science and history from one of the world's foremost meteorologists and an award-winning science journalist. This in-depth look at these awe-inspiring acts of nature covers everything from the earliest efforts by seafarers at predicting storms to the way satellite imaging is revolutionizing hurricane forecasting. It reveals the latest information on hurricanes: their effects on ocean waves, the causes of the variable wind speeds in different parts of the storm, and the origins of the super-cooled shafts of water that vent at high altitudes. Hurricane Watch is a compelling history of man's relationship with the deadliest storms on earth.
Includes:
- The story of the nineteenth-century Cuban Jesuit whose success at predicting the great cyclones was considered almost mystical.
- A new look at Isaac Cline, whose infamous failure to predict the Galveston Hurricane left him obsessed with the devastating effects of storm surge.
- The story of the Hurricane Hunters, including the first man ever to deliberately fly into a hurricane.
- A complete account of how computer modeling has changed hurricane tracking.
- A history of Project Stormfury: the only significant, organized effort to reduce the damaging strength of severe hurricanes.
- A unique firsthand account of Hurricane Andrew by both authors, who were at the National Hurricane Center when Andrew struck.
- A listing of the deadliest storms in history.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The powerful winds of the famous Galveston hurricane of 1900 drove mountains of surging water inland with little warning, and met with little understanding. Hurricanes are no different today, but thanks to advances in meteorology conceived by people like Sheets, the former director of the National Hurricane Center and the wide dissemination of information by news media particularly journalists like USA Today weather page founder Williams the United States public is much better prepared than in the past. While thousands died amid massive destruction at the turn of the century, monstrous Andrew destroyed billions of dollars in property in 1992, but took few lives. Sheets and Williams deliver an accessible history of how meteorologists have learned to understand and predict the course of these fearsome atmospheric giants. Except for a basic blunder in the description of satellite orbital mechanics, in which the authors describe a fictitious centrifugal force instead of inertia, the technical writing is clear and accurate. Complementing the discussion of science and technology are stories of human tragedy and triumph and of the risks that still lurk along our coastlines. Readers will easily and eagerly follow the authors' step-by-step look at advances in both meteorology and emergency response from the first known successful hurricane prediction in the 16th century on Columbus's fourth voyage to the New World through advances in instrumentation, satellite imagery, aircraft reconnaissance and computer modeling in the 20th century to the unresolved problems and the uncertainties of changing climate in the 21st.
