Air Apparent: How Meteorologists Learned to Map, Predict, and Dramatize Weather [Hardcover]

Mark Monmonier (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 15, 1999

Weather maps have made our atmosphere visible, understandable, and at least moderately predictable. In Air Apparent Mark Monmonier traces debates among scientists eager to unravel the enigma of storms and global change, explains strategies for mapping the upper atmosphere and forecasting disaster, and discusses efforts to detect and control air pollution. Fascinating in its scope and detail, Air Apparent makes us take a second look at the weather map, an image that has been, and continues to be, central to our daily lives.

"Clever title, rewarding book. Monmonier . . . offers here a basic course in meteorology, which he presents gracefully by means of a history of weather maps." —Scientific American

"Mark Monmonier is onto a winner with Air Apparent. . . . It is good, accessible science and excellent history. . . . Read it." —Fred Pearce, New Scientist

"[Air Apparent] is a superb first reading for any backyard novice of weather . . . but even the veteran forecaster or researcher will find it engaging and, in some cases, enlightening." —Joe Venuti, Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society

"Monmonier is solid enough in his discussion of geographic and meteorological information to satisfy the experienced weather watcher. But even if this information were not presented in such a lively and engaging manner, it would still hook most any reader who checks the weather map every morning or who sits happily entranced through a full cycle of forecasts on the Weather Channel."—Michael Kennedy, Boston Globe

Editorial Reviews

From Scientific American

Clever title, rewarding book. Monmonier, professor of geography at Syracuse University, offers here a basic course in meteorology, which he presents gracefully by means of a history of weather maps. The earliest of the many such maps that illustrate the book was published in 1686 by English astronomer Edmond Halley; it showed trade winds and monsoons in, as Halley put it, "the Seas between and near the Tropicks, with an Attempt to Assign the Phisical Cause of the Said Winds." By the end of the book, one is looking at maps based on such high-tech meteorological aids as weather satellites, radar and the Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer. Contemporary meteorology, Monmonier says, is "arguably today's single most map-intensive scientific enterprise."

Review

Air Apparent ... is good, accessible science and excellent history. Monmonier jumps skillfully from anecdote to meteorological theory to cartography. And he is no slouch at modern forecasts. -- New Scientist, Fred Pearce

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 324 pages
• Publisher: University Of Chicago Press; 1 edition (April 15, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0226534227
• ISBN-13: 978-0226534220
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.8 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,088,302 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good book on a neglected topic, September 23, 2000

By 

Kevin W. Parker (Greenbelt, MD) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Air Apparent: How Meteorologists Learned to Map, Predict, and Dramatize Weather (Hardcover)

There have been many books about the history of maps, but few have addressed one of the types of maps that we consult most regularly: the weather map. Monmonier, a professor of geography at Syracuse University and author of several previous books, endeavors to remedy this deficiency and does so admirably.

He goes back to the earliest days of investigating the weather, before telephone or telegraph when any weather map had to be put together days or more after the fact. But it gets done, even so, and when higher-speed communications are available, people are ready.

He goes on to cover developments both technological and social: the advent of radar as a weather detection tool as well as the now-routine weather satellite views, but also how the weather is covered in the news, including the development of the newspaper weather map from the dull black-and-white diagrams that were once routine to the multicolored glory of USA Today's weather map.

There's weather on television, too, and he spends time talking about both The Weather Channel's coverage with their many maps on a chroma-key background and how local stations cover the weather using the latest in technology, from doppler radar to the fancy, fly-through 3-D graphics that many of them seem to use these days.

My personal preference would have been to learn more about the earliest days of the weather maps and how they were developed and less about the development of the glitzy modern weather reporting, but perhaps that is just me, and, considering the ubiquity of the latter, I can't fault its inclusion.

Overall, it's a well-written, good read, and highly recommended for the weather fanatics among us (and I must include myself!).

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A serious, well-written book, September 17, 2000

By 

Justin Douglas Tygar (Berkeley, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Air Apparent: How Meteorologists Learned to Map, Predict, and Dramatize Weather (Hardcover)

This book uses weather maps as a central motif. It discusses issues of meteorology (although it is not really a primer on meteorology, as suggested by the Scientific American review), cartography, graphic design, and mass media. It is lightly written but well documented and intelligently illustrated. It is a great read for those who enjoy science books.