Customer Reviews

Extreme Weather: A Guide and Record Book (Revised and Updated)

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This book (like the last edition) is a sight for sore eyes and should be a staple item for weather enthusiasts and meteorologists; Chris' painstaking research presents us all with an up-to-date book of extremes (including maps) which challenge the out-of-date governmental and Internet resources that have attempted, in the past, to document record weather worldwide. Chris has published additional charts, tables and maps that you just can't find anywhere else in this latest edition. I really am not a big paper book fan becuase there is a lot of inaccurate stuff out there by amateur authors but this one is on my shelf at both work and home, and I frequently refer to it when meteorological extremes are challenged worldwide.

I'm not sure what I was thinking when I bought this book. I teach meteorology at a couple of universities, and I'm always wanting to update my knowledge in this area. This is basically a 'record' book...it takes the extremes of weathers around the world. The coldest spot, the windiest place, etc. The book has more lists of the 'ten most...' places. Though I found it interesting, it really wasn't the type of book that I can use in my classroom to explain 'why', which is usually what I want in weather books. I also like historical references and books on weather happenings historically, and this didn't fit the bill for me.

My favorite parts of the book were the pictures which were glorious and the historical records. I also like the older photos and the information that went with them. I would have liked to see more of those in the book.

For people who like books like The Guiness Records, and things like that, this book is right up your alley.

Is the climate really changing radically? To answer this a record of past weather extremes and norms needs to be reviewed, and there's no better place to do this than with Extreme Weather: A Guide and Record Book. Here are U.S. weather trends going back to the 19th century in a revised, updated guide which includes historical examples of strange weather. Divided into chapters by type of weather - strange snowstorms, thunderstorms and hail, etc. - each chapter pairs color photos and illustrations with maps, lively overviews, and more. An excellent choice not just for science libraries, but for any general interest lending library.

Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch

"Extreme Weather" is a chatty and amusing compilation of the hottest, coldest, wettest, driest, stormiest, foggiest places in the United States, with references to the rest of the world.

But it turns out that the United States has more extreme weather than any other country. Author Christopher Burt says it is because America is big enough to encompass both cold northern air and warm southern air, without the east-west mountains that Eurasia has to keep them apart. Most American extreme weather champions are west of the Mississippi, with another concentration around the Gulf of Mexico.

Burt has the character to write about weather without reference to climate alarmism, a rare feat these days. He states, correctly, that even if the globe were warming, we would still get new records every year at both ends: cold and hot, warm and dry.

Although he takes pains to isolate his weather enthusiasm from climate change controversy, that doesn't mean the reader cannot draw his own conclusions. Most amusing is the list of F5 tornadoes.

We have been promised, repeatedly, that emitting carbon dioxide will result in more and more violent storms. The worst tornadoes, called F5 (more recently EF5) occur only in the United States, thanks to our curious topography. Burt has a list by decades.

From 1900-1909, there were 4. In the following decades, the totals were 5, 6, 5, 6, 13, 15, 13. Well, well, well, this is looking quite promising for the Chicken Littles, nearly three times as many in the second half the 20th century as in the first half.

Oops! Only 3 in the decade of the '80s. Then 10 in the '90s. But, oops again, we have concluded the Oughties with only 2. That is, during the past 3 decades, including two that are allegedly the warmest in 1,000 years, the number of F5s is the same as during the first 3 decades of the 20th century.

The record series are well organized, and it is easy to see that extreme weather events are randomly distributed. You cannot use them to detect climate change. Not on the scale of a couple of centuries, anyway.

Burt takes a sensible approach by simply accepting the local records as observed at the time, without trying to adjust or normalize them. Some may have been less precise than others, but we just have to live with that.

All in all, a balanced and humane book, illustrated with well-chosen pictures and well-organized maps, charts and graphs.

There have been two editions so far 2004 and 2007, and there is a Website, [...] that updates with new record-breaking events.

The first edition, 2004, included this prediction: "Although dikes protect the city (of New Orleans) from the waters of nearby Lake Ponchartrain, these would almost certainly be overwhelmed by a Category 4 or 5 storm surge. Should this occur, much of downtown New Orleans, including the French Quarter could be swamped under 20 feet of water."

The next year was Katrina, only Cat 3 and it wasn't storm surge as much as bureaucracy that did in the city, but Burt looks like a prophet.

I was surprised to learn than the maximum temperature ever recorded in Florida is lower (by a degree or two) than the maximum temperatures in Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia and Tennessee. The reason seems to be the moderating effect of the ocean, but still, southern Florida is a lot farther south than Tennessee. I'd have thought that at least once in a while being a thousand miles south would have trumped the cooling effect of the ocean.

For some reason not everyone finds facts and narratives on outlandish weather interesting. If you do, however, this book is the pinnacle. Burt could have made it 8 times longer and I would have never gotten bored. Full of fantastical information about places you'll never go and weather you'll never see - I eat that stuff up. If you are at all interested in anything weather related, you'll be hooked on this book.

I wanted this book for one reason: the picture of ball lightning. I'm not into the whole climate-change, global warming issue, debate, what have you, but the book is packed with interesting facts.

I bought this book for my son-in-law for Christmas. He loves books,videos, and anything to do with the weather. He thought it was an excellent book.