Weather Books

Good physical and mathematical description of the temporal behavior of all forms and types of clouds. Written at graduate level. Covers all aspects of cloud dynamics including fundamentals of atmospheric dynamics. Details of particular cloud classes from met viewpoint including measurements. Emphasis on measurements to support modeling.

Divided into two sections ("Fundamentals" and "Phenomena") Houze's book examines the general structure, physics, and evolution of a wide range of cloud types/forms. It's often difficult to blend these viewpoints together, but Houze does so with a healthy mix of equations (some difficult!), popular figures from the literature, and explanations.

The "Fundamentals" section (first 4 chapters) is a great reference item for anyone interested in meteorology: a pictorial cloud atlas, reviews of the equations of motion, of general microphysics (how particles in clouds form, grow, and decay), and a discussion of weather radar. "Phenomena" range from fog to cumulus clouds to hurricanes and even mid-latitude cyclones.

Houze applies the "fundamentals" to all of the "phenomena" he covers...once you master the fundamentals--senior undergraduates and beginning graduate students should be able to follow the math--discussion of the cloud processes becomes easier to read.

To the most senior airline captain,and the "Top Gun" pilots in the military,to the first time Solo pilot, this book would make all take that second Look at being a Safe Pilot. "Live to Learn and Learn to Live"

I am not much of a fan of the "Controlling Pilot Error" series, as I think they are frequently too generalized, and in some cases technically inaccurate. Having said that, Daryl Smith has written one of the better volumes in the series with this book on CFIT.

Smith discusses many scenarios of CFIT (Controlled Flight Into Terrain) and includes many real-world examples with generally disastrous endings. Most of these accidents boil down to low Situational Awareness (SA) or complacency, but a wide enough cross-section is examined to keep the reader interested.

One critique (a problem in the other volumes as well) is there are numerous grammatical, spelling, and especially subject-verb agreement/tense errors in the book. I am seriously wondering who proofread these volumes. Some of them are fairly innocuous (such as calling an L-1011 an L10-11 starting on page 26), but many are truly glaring.

Smith covers the United 173 (UA 173, Portland) and Eastern 401 (EA 401, Everglades) accidents in particular detail, and for good reason. Not only are they vivid examples, but they both ultimately became the parents of Crew Resource Management (CRM) years later. I have no real complaints with the UA 173 accident coverage, but the EA 401 accident coverage does contain some technical errors (I have a type rating on the L-1011, and although most of the details are insignificant, a few are truly misleading) that I noticed, particularly in relation to Autopilot mode (Command vs. Control Wheel Steering [CWS]), as well as a few other systems inaccuracies.

Smith does tackle the interesting results of the Milgram Obedience Study (page 116) including the concept of "Destructive Obedience" that can truly be a killer in the cockpit. Although I was familiar with the study, this was the first widely distributed aviation book I have seen it discussed in.

Smith presents a good overview of the American 965 accident in Cali, Columbia, but here (and elsewhere in the book) he makes several generalized and incorrect statements regarding Flight Management Systems (FMS), and doesn't really correctly explore spoiler retraction during a go-around (GA); note that spoilers are automatically retracted in GA mode on the L-1011 and some Airbus aircraft, though not on the B-757.

I personally do not revere Chuck Yeager, but Smith discusses Yeager's dedication to knowing his aircraft thoroughly, and I think that is a model that all pilots should follow. I salute Smith (and Yeager) for making this point so eloquently in the book.

Starting with the premise than most CFIT accidents begin with loss of SA (normally related to terrain proximity), Smith undertakes an excellent introduction to the different types of altitudes pilots must be aware of (MEA, MCA, MVA, MOCA, MORA, MSA, etc.) starting on page 210. This is an excellent review for all pilots, and should be studied repeatedly by new instrument-rated pilots, especially. On the down side, Smith makes an erroneous statement concerning Backcourse Localizer approaches in most HSI equipped aircraft on page 242. This goes back to Yeager's doctrine of knowing your aircraft: different information is presented in many ways in different aircraft; know how yours works before you go fly (especially in IMC).

Overall, I was pleased with this book; it has many good lessons, and despite a few obtuse technical deficiencies, the points it makes are all on target. For that reason I recommend it to pilots of all experience levels, especially new instrument pilots.

This is a nice book to read aloud to those in the range of 4-8 years, and could be read by a 2nd-grader. The book does a good job explaining the water cycle, condensation, evaporation, the formation of clouds, hail, etc. It's easy to understand and enjoyable to read. The illustrations are wonderful also. There are practical illustrations and activity suggestions, like putting a teaspoon of water on a plate to evaporate, boiling water on the stove, or filling a glass of water with ice to away condensation.

I'd recommend this as a good book on the topic for anyone with preschoolers or early elementary age children; it's a nice addition to our homeschooling library. My only gripe is that it's mentioned that water vapor in clouds can turn into rain and into hail, but there's not even a passing mention of snowflakes.

This is a nice book. My son is still too young for it (4 yr old). But He can read it in couple of years.

Down Comes The Rain is an excellent book that introduces to young children the formation of rain and where it actually comes from. It also discusses the transformation of water into ice and also the evaporation of water. Children can understand the book through its simple terms and colorful illustrations. Rain is just one of the many things that young children often wonder about. It is a very good book that can be added to any elementary classroom when discussing a unit on weather or simply to have at home to read togther on rainy days! Many hands-on activities, such as putting a teaspoon of water into a saucer and coming back to see that it has evaporated into the air, can be done by using this book. I have added this book to my list that I plan to use in the classroom!

Have you ever wondered about earthquakes? Are they dangerous? How do they start? Well if you want top know the answers, I recommend you read Earthquakes by Paul P. Sipiera.
In this book you will learn about various sub topics such as earths plates, why the earth shakes, the San Andreas Fault, and the many dangers of earthquakes. This book is very easy to read and understand. It breaks things down so its easy to read and understand, and provides pictures along the way to guide you threw things.
Earthquakes happen all the time, and many people don't see the dangers of them. The book states, "Major earthquakes cause great loss of life." People need to be more aware of there surroundings. The book also states, "no place on earth is totally safe from earthquakes." This is why we need to be aware of these things, because they could happen anywhere at anytime.
Overall, I would highly recommend this book to anyone interested in this subject. It's an easy read, which would benefit you in many ways. Even if you couldn't care less about earthquake, I'm sure this book would interest you.

Having experienced the 6.8 earthquake that hit the Seattle area on February 28, my son and I were eager to read up on earthquakes. What better place to turn that the True Book series? After all, my older daughter used to eat up the series like bon bons during her summer vacations.

The Sipiera book did not disappoint. It is chock-full of fascinating photos and simple, easy-to-understand text. What really stands out about the True book series is this: much science literature for young children consists of information tidbits. The True Book series caters to the same age group but introduces children to a sustained narrative. I can't help but think this does them far more good than disconnected facts. Also, phonetic pronunciations for unfamiliar words are provided throughout.

My son and I had a great time with this book and I think your children will too, whether or not they've been through an earthquake before.

This is a wonderful book to teach to Junior High kids. I bought it though for my Meteorology class at the Junior college I attend.

I taught an online class this semester on meteorology, and this was the textbook I was given. I always hold my breath a bit concerning textbooks, because I've taught chemistry, physics, cell biology, and meteorology...and my background includes two degrees in neuroscience. I never stop reading. As a deaf person who doesn't listen to music, go to movies, or watch television much, reading is my source of relaxation as well as involved in my work. I tend towards either nonfiction or classical literature lately, and much of my reading involves science and specifically weather. Global warming is such a hot topic now, and I've wanted to stay on top of this also because of my interest and ethical work as concerns deaf people in catastrophic occurences.

Anyway, this was definitely one of the better textbooks. My students didn't start having problems until the fifth and sixth chapters, which were way too technical on air pressure and wind for an online course and for students who were taking this class with no prior physics. Since physics is deeply involved in weather science, it would have been much easier to teach those chapters in a classroom, though I am now exploring avenues to teach these very things online.

I felt that the author of this textbook was speaking to the students this time instead of writing to his peer group (which is how many textbook and journal articles write today). The information is interesting, and thorough, and the textbook can definitely be adapted to younger classes or beginning science classrooms. It would just take some time to adapt it better and unfortunately, the university I taught at just changed their online program which everyone was required to learn at the same time they were expected to also do classwork. I also had to cut down the amount to be learned because it was an eight week course, instead of a semester course. That also complicated things...but I thought on the whole this was a good book, and I am continuing to read the rest of it for my own personal understanding.

Karen L. Sadler
Pittsburgh, PA

Teaching children to love books is very important, and this book is a great tool for this. My 8 month old boy loves this book & others in the same collection. He's a very active child, with a short concentration span, but will sit quite still to look at this book, & lets out little squeaks of happiness. He recognizes & opens the little flaps, and even has some favorite flaps, that are get quite worn out. We don't let him watch TV, so the book doesn't have to compete with that. Also I think the book is nicely put together, and the photographs in the compositions are of a superior quality.

This book is a good starting point to teach weather to children, it covers all aspects of weather. It is intended for the elementary level but the great photos make this book appealing to younger kids.

A book about weather everything from the history of meteorology to the formation of hurricanes. There is a lot of information in each page, information about different equipment used to track and measure the weather. Photographs and graphics are used to describe the weather and how to track it. In the back of the book there are pages devoted to making a home weather station to track and record the weather. The book is indexed in the back for easy access to information. It makes the book a good choice to have for easy reference or a young student's weather project. The material is not presented in a boring matter. Some younger students may find too much information to understand at the first reading.

THIS BOOK WAS ONE OF MY FAVOURITES DK BOOKS I EVER READ
EVERY PAGE OF THIS WAS VERY VERY GREAT.I'M INTERESTED IN
WEATHER TOO

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Something about the graphic novel really works well for coming of age stories, and FAIR WEATHER is one of the funniest I've read. The author gets every nuance of pre-teen life just right: the self-absorbtion, the pettiness, the fear, the desires. Particularly strong here is the friendship between Joe and Dave, who spend their days riding bikes and spying girls through peepholes. I love one frame, in particular, when Joe finally finds his collection of comic books, which his mother hid in the attic. He yells out the window, wide-mouthed, deliriously happy, "I found them! And if you ever touch them again I'll burn the house down!"

4B-DILLON C.

All in all I really liked this book a lot. As a comic book it has a lot to offer to someone like me. I never read really I just scan over stuff ,but this book really struck my fancy. It's really interesting I have a lot in common with some of the characters. So if your a unique individual like myself I really suggest theat you read this book. It truthfully comes from a teenage point of view.So have some fun in class and read this book.

As if we didn't have enough to worry about with the bioterrorism threat, now we have to be concerned about manufactured weather that could be used as a weapon. College student and super genius Shane is thrilled to have figured out how to create a tornado in a lab, thinking his discovery is pure science to be used to predict weather; when it turns out he is actually working for a secret government agency interested in using his experiment for harm, he walks out of the project - but when a series of suspicious weather patterns indicate someone has stolen his idea, a confrontation with his supervisor results in everyone whose lives he touches being in danger - as is his own.
This is a high drama tale that would translate well to film. The plot itself is unpredictable but not completely outrageous. The premise of the existence of a group of Truth Seekers working to stall government plots borders on X-Files but could lend itself well to a whole series of books.

Fantastic book, fast, furious, and hard to put down. Snigowski and Golden really now how to weave a great tale.

This is an awesome book and plays Frosty the Snowman music as the child reads. Only 4 stars as the book was dented a bit on the cover, but it didn't effect the music, just looked used.

My son is 2 and adores this book. He will listen to me sing the story over 4 times in one sitting.

Although the music is fast paced, it has the tune perfectly, and the entire song is illustrated with just a few lines per page.

The book is well built for the toddler crowd, and we LOVE it.