Weather: How It Works and Why It Matters

by Arthur R. Upgren

Book Overview

Scientists have delved deep into the smallest particles of matter and have extended their view to the far reaches of the universe, but still seem unable to predict the temperature five days hence. In... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0738202940
• ISBN13: 9780738202945
• Release Date: September 2000
• Publisher: Basic Books (AZ)
• Length: 223 Pages
• Weight: 1.08 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 6.4" x 9.6"

Customer Reviews

Environmental issues

The book Weather: How it works and Why it Matters by Arthur Upgren and Jurgen Stock is an interesting and rather diverse text on weather. It covers not only the basics, like humidity, dew point, wind chill and temperature, but also the physics of weather, the lore of weather, and weather on other planets. It examines ice ages and their causes and looks at the effects of extraterrestrial impacts, like the ancient Chicxulub astroid that destroyed the dinosaurs and the modern day Tunguska comet impact in Siberia in 1908. Although I'd no doubt that the authors were very competent in science (Arthur Upgren is Professor of Astronomy at Wesleyan University and Senior Research Scientist at Yale University and his coauthor Jurgen Stock is an astronomer on the faculty of Hamburg and Case Western Reserve Universities), I wasn't quite sure that either was necessarily qualified as a meteorologist. Actually I found it interesting that two such well trained astronomers would even be interested in writing a book about weather and climate. It was with the final chapters (15-18) of the book that their purpose in doing so became apparent. The problem of global warming and world wide environmental destruction is an issue with which many scientists, regardless of their pedigree, have become more and more involved. Well known and influential authors such as E.O. Wilson and Richard Leaky have added their voices to a growing chorus of well trained individuals attempting to call our attention and that of our governments to the dangers of continued abuse of nature and the planet. In this instance, it isn't so much the "how it works" part of the title that is the actual point of the book, but the "why it matters" portion that is overwhelmingly so. The bibliography is well rounded and well worth spending a little time rounding up the entries. It includes titles that cover, in even greater detail, many of the concepts introduced by the present authors. Included are Aherns' Essentials of Meteorology, Alvarez's T. Rex and the Crater of Doom, Diamond's Guns, Germs, and Steel, Imbrie and Imbrie's Ice Ages: Solving the Mystery, Leaky and Lewin's The Sixth Extinction: Patterns of Life and the Future of Mankind, Stommel and Stommel's Volcano Weather: The Story of the Year without a Summer, 1816, among others. Some of these I have already read and enjoyed, others I will definitely look to include in my reading list.Although one might find a better and more detailed discussion of the actual complexities of weather and climate, this book covers a broad spectrum of issues having to do with it and brings to the fore the impact that our individual decisions have on our world.

Descriptive, informative, yet casual

First, I would like to comment on the overall tone of this book that discusses one of those topics that often would invoke some form of repulsion by the average layman - Junger has done a marvelous job at engaging the reader through an otherwise lengthy and descriptive piece of literature.The author leads the reader through the weather journey from his honest personal experiences to the history of Earth's atmospheric evolution, all but topped with curious facts about other planets and the Universe. I really enjoyed the systematic approach he applies in the discussion of Global Warming, the delicate inter relationship that marries the climate and human activities and preventive measures.However, one huge drawback of this book that now seems to beg you to buy it is the lack of detailed Geographical analyses of mechanisms of the weather machine and their causes. The author tends to gloss over the details (which may be a good thing for some) but offers many examples to support his statements.What I find particularly refreshing is the section on weather lore. To cite one example, the old saying that when dew appears rain will not come, actually arises from the lack of cloud cover. Comprehensive and light hearted talk about the weather. Thumbs up.