Book review: On weather

Spencer Christian. “Spencer Christian’s Weather Book.” Prentice Hall, New York, 1993. (Available through inter-library loan from our Library.)  Website: http://www.osgov.com/library.html

By John R. Clark

For anyone curious about weather happenings, Spencer Christian’s compact text is top of the line. It is as relevant today as when it was written sixteen years ago. In 216 pages the author covers major factors including air, water, clouds, thunder, tornadoes and hurricanes, and then explains how weather is recorded and predicted. He does this in a style that is friendly but not at all condescending, explaining that he is “…trying to put a human face on weather.”

We learn how our atmosphere was influenced by carbon dioxide from ANCIENT volcanic eruptions which provided the greenhouse effect which warms our planet and without which the Earth would have been a frozen world.” We are told that nature experimented for 4 billion years before “the recipe for air was right for life” and could protect us from x-rays, ultraviolet, and “other bad stuff.” Also we are reminded how our seasonal cycles are caused by the Earth’s permanent tilt on its axis, about 23.5 degrees.

From a celestial viewpoint, Earth is a “water planet” with 71 percent of its surface covered with water, 97.2 percent of which is salt water. We learn how this water circulates and becomes clouds, rain, snow, dew, or fog and how to tell the difference between various cloud types such as cumulus, stratus, and cirrus and what they tell us about weather. Then we find out all about wind, from its various global forms such as the worldwide jet stream, to local wind and how to record its speed and direction.

The author moves on to weather fronts and storms, providing as background a description of the seven permanent air masses of North America. Next he describes the three types of fronts– warm fronts, cold fronts, and occluded fronts – and how useful knowledge of the character and movement of these fronts is to weather forecasters. He also gives detailed accounts of thunder storms, tornadoes, waterspouts, and hurricanes.

You may be surprised to learn that the USA has the world’s best breeding ground for heavy-duty thunder storms in the states east of the Rockies, particularly in the Southeast. The cause is the humid tropical air that flows north from the Caribbean, the Gulf of Mexico, and Bermuda and is forced upwards, cooling about one degree F. for every 300 feet of rise. When the rising air cools to the dew point, its moisture condenses into clouds that become electrically charged and produce lightning and thunder.

The author describes the job of weather forecasting, which he has done for years for ABC television, and how much forecasters now depend on computer models, along with weather maps and measures of relative humidity, air pressure, and cloud structure. He then discusses how over thousands of years people have learned to anticipate weather and how this has become folklore, for example: “Fish bite just before it rains” or “ Red sky at night sailor’s delight; red sky in morning, sailors take warning.” He finishes with advice to those who might want to become proficient weather watchers.

John R.Clark is a member of Ocean Shores Friends of the Library (OSFOL)