Skies of Fury: Weather Weirdness Around the World [Paperback]

Patricia Barnes-Svarney (Author), Thomas E Svarney (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0684850001 | ISBN-13: 978-0684850009 | Publication Date: September 3, 1999 | Edition: Original

The skies aren't friendly anymore!

Sweltering heat waves. Bone-chilling blizzards. Ferocious winds. Mighty peculiar weather we've been having, isn't it? Well, scientists predict that climate trends are only going to get stranger in the future. And in Skies of Fury, top science writers Patricia Barnes-Svarney and Thomas E. Svarney take you around the world, bringing you face-to-face with the eye of the storm, explaining the full range of weird weather affecting us. Discover the reasons behind:

* downdrafts, heat bursts, derechoes, and tornadoes

* monsoons, tropical storms, hurricanes, and rogue waves

* sandstorms, dust devils, wildfires, and polar ice deserts

* light pillars, diamond dust, and sun dogs

* mirages, UFOs, and green flashes

* torrential rainfall, ball lightning, and super showstorms

* flash flooding, hall, sea smoke, and smog

And much, much more!

Fully illustrated with photographs from key weather trackers, and packed with unusual factoids and records, Skies of Fury reveals the extremes to which Mother Nature can go in both her unparalleled beauty and her wanton destructiveness.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Ever used a cricket as a thermometer? It's pretty easy, really: when it's 60 degrees F, crickets apparently chirp 72 times a minute. For every 4 chirps over that, add a degree; for every four under, subtract a degree. That's just one of the many bizarre facts that veteran science writer Patricia Barnes-Svarney and her naturalist husband Thomas Svarney managed to uncover, verify ("relatively speaking," in the case of the crickets), and report in their sweeping survey of the "power and weirdness" of weather. With more or less equal coverage of basic meteorological principles and the more showy, sensational side of weather, Skies of Fury serves as an entertaining and approachable primer on the subject for everybody from aspiring young scientists to Weather Channel-watching armchair meteorologists.

Beginning with a straightforward discussion of earth's "weather engine"--the influence of the sun, the patterns of convection cells, the interaction of winds, the importance of the water cycle--Skies of Fury proceeds to dissect and catalog every major meteorological phenomenon, from the different types of clouds and lightning strikes to F5 tornadoes and billion-dollar hurricanes. The authors pack a lot of facts into this relatively breezy (sorry) and readable book, leaving you well-armed to go out and scout the skies yourself. (And you'll even know precisely what those big red Hs and blue Ls mean on the Weather Channel.) --Paul Hughes

From Kirkus Reviews

There are no bad boys and the same goes for weather, but that's not to say its behavior isn't often mighty strange, as science writers Barnes-Svarney and Svarney explain. Concisely knit together here are introductions to the grand forces shaping the weather and the sideshow of related hellspawn, dazzlers, and curios. In a light but bell-clear tone, Barnes-Svarney and Svarney lay the foundation stones: the hydrologic cycle, the great prevailing winds, the jet stream and the southern oscillation and high and low pressure systemsthe weather shapers. Then they present the odd weather phenomena, the events that keep you wondering: Jacob's Ladder and the Ropes of Maui, sun dogs and moon dogs, the twilight wedge, the specter of Brocken (where, high in the mountains, your shadow penetrates into the encroaching fog, framed by concentric rings of glory), and everybody's favorite, the green flash. These are set within their particular contexts, be they topographic or atmospheric, and are typically accompanied by outrageous stories. One finds a pilot bailing out of his plane at 47,000 feet and falling smack dab into a monster hurricane. He is spun around in the system, the ultimate wash-rinse cycle, for 40 minutes. He almost drowns, but its the lightning that really gets his attention: ``it appeared mainly as a bluish sheet, several feet thick, sometimes sticking close to me in pairs.'' He is hurled to the ground, lands in a tree, and walks away. Then there is the chartreuse ball of lightning the size of a bus that bounced down a Welsh hillside, and the air light that brings us purple mountains' majesty, and the storm surges during syzygy, when the sun and moon are aligned and the tides just keep rising. The weather: it never ceases to amaze. You will continue to stand in awe of it after reading this book, but at least it won't be dumb awe. (photos) -- Copyright ©1999, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Touchstone; Original edition (September 3, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0684850001
• ISBN-13: 978-0684850009
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.5 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.9 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,842,153 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Interesting Mix of Information and Trivia, April 18, 2000

By 

"weathergirl18" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Skies of Fury: Weather Weirdness Around the World (Paperback)

This book does a very good job at getting basic weather information out to the layperson. As a student majoring in Meteorology, I can also vouch for the fact that it will still hold the attention of those with more education on the subject. It also has many sidebars which relay interesting facts and tidbits about the wonders of weather. I recommend this book to anyone who has a love of Meteorology and wants to kow more.

5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful -- Full of Information, yet Easy to Understand, May 13, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Skies of Fury: Weather Weirdness Around the World (Paperback)

This book has wonderful explanations of our weather. It is presented in very easily understood manner, yet doesn't talk down to you. Gives lots of weather tidbits and info. Totally enjoyable.