Suche books:   





Hurricane Watch: Forecasting the Deadliest Storms on Earth
Jack Williams, Bob Sheets

Vintage, 2001 - 352 pages

average customer review:based on 12 reviews
view larger image
 for more information click here

   highly recommended  highly recommended





Wealth of information and still readable!

Dr. Bob Sheets is a previous director of the National Hurricane Center in Miami. Jack Williams helped found the USA TODAY Weather Page. Together these two well respected men combine their unique talents, introspection , scientific facts with intriguing anecdotal tales. The result may well be one of the ultimate books about hurricanes from their formation to the evolution of man's ability to understand and predict their path and power. They blend the lines of scientific fact and human experience yielding an accessible guide to a more in-depth understanding of hurricanes. The book covers the early days of meteorology, when it was perceived as almost a mythical ability to the more current up to the moment technological advances at the forefront of climatology and prediction. Also included are tables listing the deadliest hurricanes, strongest hurricanes and costliest storms. The Saffir-Simpson scale is explained and laid out along with a table detailing the strike possibilities by region. There is a section that deals with the computer models utilized by the National Hurricane Center, both the statistical and dynamic forecast models, from CLIPER to SHIPS, from GFDL to NOGAPS. Each model is detailed and it's purpose and focus are explained.
Finally there is the most important section, on how to prepare for a hurricane, from things to do before you buy or build your home, preparing ahead of time for hurricane season and what to do from the time a watch is issued, the hurricane arrives and after the hurricane has passed. This book is a wealth of information for those whose lives may depend upon an understanding of hurricane predictions and the ability to prepare themselves and their families for the possible onslaught of the hurricane season.


 for more information click here


Well blow me down.

Ever since I was a child trapped inside by the pouring rain as the remnants of Camille passed over East Tennessee, I have been fascinated by hurricanes. With that in mind, this book was hard to resist. Especially since I had spent many hours watching Dr. Sheets on television. It is pretty obvious though that Jack Williams did most of the writing and for those of us who are not that familiar with the science of meteorology that is a very good thing for this is a very complicated subject and dumbing down is exactly what I needed.

This book is not so much a book about major hurricanes as it is a history of the predicting of hurricanes. From Columbus to the present satellites and Doppler systems this book tells the story of man's attempts to guess what Mother Nature is up to. There is even a chapter about attempts to actually control hurricanes.

Even with the simple way the authors attempted to tell their story I was lost at times but not all too often. For a trained meteorologist this book would probably seem almost childish, but for the average person like myself it is just about right. I still don't completely understand everything about wind sheer, computer models, and latent heat but I am at least familiar with the terms now. From now on, as a hurricane approaches the U.S. coast and I sit there in front of the TV I will have a vague idea of how the computer models work and will know all about the Bermuda high.

The chapter I found the most interesting was the chapter about hurricane Andrew. That is the kind of thing I was actually looking for in this book but even though I only found one chapter of what I had been looking for, I still found this book to be highly informative, interesting, and well written. I imagine that Dr. Sheets could write an entire book on Andrew, and I wish he would


 for more information click here









 for more information click here


Prophetic

This book is like a Colombo murder mystery. You know "who did it," it's just will he or she be caught in time. The answer to the question, in this case, is "no."

Dr Sheet's book is a very thorough commentary on the history and study of hurricanes. He provides the reader with an interesting background narrative of hurricanes and their destructiveness that dates from the early experiences of Spanish explorers and early European settlers in the Caribbean, the east and southeast coasts of the US and Canada. He also discusses the typhoon or cyclone in the Pacific and the odd phenomenon that dictates that when there are more of these, there are fewer hurricanes in the Atlantic. He also covers the North Atlantic Oscillation and El Niņo, though to a lesser degree than Brian Fagan did in one of his weather/climate discussions. Of far greater historical interest-to me anyway-is his discussion of the various personalities involved in researching hurricanes. It's surprising how much solid study was conducted as early as the 19th century.

The author also describes the big name hurricanes. Probably the best is his own experience of Hurricane Andrew in Florida. The story is riveting, especially when, having lived through a very precarious situation himself, he expresses concern over the very real possibility that the storm might move on into the Gulf of Mexico and hit New Orleans. The book was written in the late 1990s, but he is able to thoroughly describe the potential destruction should a hurricane hit the city in full force. As we know, Andrew did not move into the New Orleans area, but Katrina did. The outcome was much as the author had predicted. With so much foresight, it makes one wonder why authorities could have been so lax in taking precautions. It was, in fact, much as many had already said, a case of "not if, but when."

The answer seems to reside in that peculiar sense of probability that dictates that "if it didn't happen in my grandfather's time, and it didn't happen in my father's time, it won't happen mine." Human experience of climate is actually the experience of weather, a relatively short-term phenomenon. While the human life span seems quite long compared to other types of animal, it's infinitesimally short compared to the age of the earth, which is the time frame of climate. It's this grander scale of climatic change that makes the discussions over global warming so contentious, and the appropriate actions to be taken the subject of feud. Everyone has his or her own opinion, and the fact is that we really don't know. The author makes this point when he discusses the possibility that there will be more frequent and more destructive storms with the advent of global warming. Here too, they don't know, but the author is inclined to doubt it. That there will be storms as destructive as Andrew he accepts; that they will be more costly he agrees. But he feels that the latter will be due more to the increasing population of the areas subject to these storms and the unpreparedness of new comers in the face of a phenomenon with which they have no experience.

What is amazing to me is that the areas subject to a force of nature as fierce as a hurricane continue to grow in population and that building continues to be substandard, at least under the circumstances, but then the San Andreas fault system is heavily settled with buildings far too fragile to survive another 1906-style earthquake and the fertile flanks of Vesuvius lure farmers to them irrespective of its reputation for death and destruction. The human capacity to ignore what "might" happen looms ever optimistic.



 for more information click here






"Hurricane watch"

"Hurricane Watch Forecasting the Deadliest Storms on Earth" was an excellent book. It had many great facts on hurricanes in it. It gave me more understanding on hurricanes and how they start. This book is very helpful if you are studying meteorology. This book is written by Dr. Bob Sheets former director of the National Hurricane Center. He was in charge of predicting the tracks of hurricanes and sending out warnings to the people of the communities where the hurricane will hit. The book goes through the history on predicting hurricanes. It starts with Christopher Columbus and ends with hurricane Andrew. Since it is a sort of old book some of the "New technology" in the book is out dated. Also it does not have anything about the strong hurricanes of today. I recommend this book for anybody who likes to learn about the history of hurricanes. The book had facts on the history of hurricanes. The book was interesting in many places but had some boring spots. Also the book talked about people flying planes into hurricanes for reconnaissance. It had the history of the reconnaissance planes starting from World War 2 to now. The book was a fairly long book. The end of the book had appendices that had facts from hurricanes in the past. It also has a list of all of the hurricanes from 2001 to 2006. In some parts of the book I could not put it down but in other parts it was boring. The book had many great pictures. Some pictures were about what happened after they hit and others were about radar and what the hurricanes looked like from above. If you like meteorology and hurricanes this book is for you. Also if you need to do some research on hurricanes I would recommend this book to you.




 for more information click here


Lots of good information!

I was in the middle of reading this book when Hurricane Katrina started heading toward us here in Louisiana. While everyone else was talking about the hurricane and its projected path, I was able to understand exactly what the forecasters were talking about. This book explains the dynamics of a hurricane very well - how, where and why they form, and an explanation of the weather phenomena that forecasters (and forecasting models) use to project its path.

One thing this book has made me realize is that weather is an imperfect science. It seems many people think forecasters are pointless because they're often wrong, but what they don't realize is that there is a LOT we don't know about weather. And we're a lot better off knowing what we know today! It is also strange to continue reading this after Katrina, because there is mention of intense, deadly hurricanes throughout history - and Katrina has really set a new precedent (Rewrite? Heck, I'd buy a 2nd edition!). This is a book that calls for a re-reading anyway. It is so jam-packed with interesting information. There are many explanations of weather phenomena that I had to read several times over because I'm not a scientifically-minded person. This book explains things very well - but I find that with weather-talk, it helps to have diagrams. Unfortunately, this book has very few (in fact, looking through, I can only find one diagram).

This book has excellent appendices! --> A list of hurricane names (2001-06), retired hurricane names. The hurricane probabilities chart is particularly fascinating - it lists names of Atlantic/Gulf coast cities and the probabilities of a hurricane/major hurricane hitting within a given year (Miami/Ft Lauderdale appear to be the two most vulnerable areas). Strongest hurricanes, most deadly hurricanes, most expensive hurricanes (including what past hurricanes would cost today). A glossary of forecasting models. A separate glossary of hurricane terminology. All excellent additions to this book!!

If you are reading this review, it means you're interested in hurricane books. And if that's the case, you NEED to read this one! - especially if you don't know much about the dynamics of hurricanes. (and if you live on either the Atlantic or Gulf coast)


 for more information click here


reviews: page 1, 2, 3



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.


 for more information click here



hot or not?    What's your opinion?     Write a review and share your thoughts!



recommendations

Books on Galveston Hurricane of 1900 and Rita 2005
So you want to move to the Caribbean
WeatherGuide's Weather Books
Books for Hurricane Freaks
Powerful Nature




hurricane

Love Is Like A Hurricane Volume 5 (Yaoi) (Love Is Like a Hurricane)
1 Dead in Attic: After Katrina
The House on First Street: My New Orleans Story
Organize for Disaster: Prepare Your Family and Your Home for Any ...
Isaac's Storm: A Man, a Time, and the Deadliest Hurricane in History



search for books
deadliest, earth, forecasting, hurricane, storms, watch


Impressum / about us


Suche books: