Warnings: The True Story of How Science Tamed the Weather [Hardcover]

Mike Smith (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 1, 2010

Experience the most devastating storms of the last fifty years through the eyes of the scientific visionaries who took them on and tamed them.

For decades, the author, a pioneering meteorologist, has dedicated himself to saving lives by combining science, experience, and instinct. The struggle to understand nature's fury provides fascinating insights into the natural forces that shape our world, and the turbulent politics that influence our scientific establishment.

Tracing the Herculean effort to improve weather forecasting and advanced warning systems, the author draws fascinating biographical sketches of the scientists behind the breakthroughs, such as Dr. Theodore Fujita, creator of the Fujita Scale for tornado measurement.

With its gripping story-telling approach to major natural disasters, Warnings is narrative nonfiction at its heart-pounding best.

''I highly recommend this exceptional book.''
--Roger Pielke, Sr., Pielke Climate Science blog

''The weatherman's version of The Right Stuff--Mike Smith's Warnings. I recommend it highly.''
--Tom Fuller, The Examiner

''A fascinating journey inside the world of weather and the mind and heart of the meteorologist. A great read for anyone.''
--Bob Ryan, chief meteorologist, WRC TV (NBC), Washington DC, former president, American Meteorological Society

''This book chronicles the remarkable advances that have occurred in meteorology over the past 50 years--not through dry statistics but through very personal stories. The book discusses the virtual elimination of airline crashes due to wind shear and the thousands of lives saved by hurricane warnings. Its primary focus is on severe storms in the Midwestern U.S., but the issues raised about the evolution of forecasting the weather, and the impact those forecasts have on the people and commerce, are much more universal. The narrative throughout the book is engaging and compelling, and I found it very hard to put down after reading just the first few pages.This book is not just for hard-core weather enthusiasts or those who work in weather-related fields (though they will love it). Anyone who has ever watched a stormy sky on warm afternoon or felt moved by the images on the news following the Greensburg tornado or Hurricane Katrina (both of which are covered in this book) will get pulled into the narrative of this book.''
--Keith Seitter, Executive Director, American Meteorological Society Boston

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

A well-known meteorologist and founder of WeatherData, Smith takes readers on a fast-paced account of the biggest storms in recent years and how weather forecasting has developed into a true science since the 1950s. Part memoir, part science account, Smith's tale begins in the late 1940s, when weathermen were actually forbidden to broadcast tornado warnings. The U.S. Weather Bureau blocked storm forecasting for fear of getting it wrong, just as today, according to Smith, the FAA has banned weather radios from airport control towers. He delivers a moment-by-moment account of the monster tornado that leveled Greensburg, Kans., in 2007 as well as a damning account of governmental incompetence in the leadup to Hurricane Katrina. But as Smith shows, scientists themselves can be close-minded and prevent their field from progressing: Smith recounts the struggle by Theodore Fujita, creator of the tornado severity scale, to see his findings on microbursts—which have killed hundreds of people in airline crashes—accepted by other scientists. This account of people who do something about the weather should appeal to just about anyone who enjoys talking about it. Photos. (May)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

About the Author

Mike Smith is one of the world's experts in the application of weather science. Meteorologist, entrepreneur, and inventor (recipient of 18 U.S. and foreign patents), Mike works with some of North America's most important companies to save lives and property and creates technology to warn the general public of dangerous weather. Warnings is Mike's first book. He tells, from a first-hand perspective, the story of the creation of the storm warning system that saves so many lives.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: Greenleaf Book Group Press; 1st edition (May 1, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1608320340
• ISBN-13: 978-1608320349
• Product Dimensions: 5.7 x 0.9 x 9.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (32 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #75,237 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #24 in Books > Professional & Technical > Professional Science > Earth Sciences > Atmospheric Sciences
  • #47 in Books > Professional & Technical > Professional Science > Earth Sciences > Rivers
  • #51 in Books > Professional & Technical > Professional Science > Earth Sciences > Natural Disasters

More About the Author

MIKE SMITH knew he would be a meteorologist at the age of five when a major tornado occurred near his Kansas City home. Fifty years later, Smith has become one of America's most innovative and honored meteorologists.

Considered a pioneer in the field of applied meteorology, Smith's development of the color radar literally "colored the weather," He was one of the nation's first storm chasers. After receiving his meteorology degree from the top-ranked university for severe storm research, the University of Oklahoma, he worked as a television meteorologist in major markets, including St. Louis, Oklahoma City, and Wichita. During his time in television, Smith became the first person ever to telecast a tornado live, demonstrating the ruthlessness Mother Nature can bring.

In 1981, Smith founded WeatherData Services, Inc., a company credited with saving countless lives and preventing hundreds of millions of dollars in property losses. WeatherData's client list includes most of the major companies and organizations throughout North America.

As a Fellow of the American Meteorological Society (AMS), Smith received the prestigious Award for Outstanding Contribution to the Advance of Applied Meteorology for his work in severe weather warnings and newspaper weather displays. WeatherData and its parent company, AccuWeather, have both been recipients of the AMS's Award for Outstanding Services to Meteorology by a Corporation. With 15 patents in the field of weather, emergency management, search-and-rescue, Smith is the only individual in applied meteorology to have received this level of recognition and honor.

In addition to his work at WeatherData, he is a frequent speaker and author of both popular and technical weather-related articles. he has appeared on the Discovery Channel, the History Channel, Fox Business News, Today, NBC Nightly News, CBS Evening News and numerous other media outlets and is the author of the weather blog, meteorologicalmusings.blogspot.com

To inquire about booking Mike Smith as a keynote speaker for your event, please go to www.mikesmithenterprises.com or call [phone] and ask for kim Dugger, Director of Marketing, Mike Smith Enterprises, LLC.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 19 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars The Exciting, Untold Story of Thousands of Lives Saved June 16, 2010

By R. Durden

Format:Hardcover

When cutting edge technology works and lives are saved it rapidly becomes ho-hum; violent death that did not happen doesn't make the television news or newspaper headlines. How many recall that a three-day storm over the Great Lakes in the 1800s would routinely kill 500 people, a hurricane in Galveston in 1900 killed more than 6,000, or that before 1960 a strong cold front spawning tornadoes could kill or mutilate a few thousand as it raced across the country? We have a short national memory, which is probably why weather scientists have not been heaped with more medals than they could carry for the lives they've saved in the last sixty years.

Mike Smith grew up at precisely the right time to become an intimate part of the revolution in weather analysis and forecasting that, outside the public eye, surged through this country. He writes of the efforts of weather scientists who not only did the research that allowed accurate forecasts of severe weather but took the steps to create a warning system that meant scores of Americans didn't die in their beds each year as their houses blew up around them in tornadoes. It is a story of creativity and determination fighting bureaucracy and of humanity at its best as ad hoc teams formed between meteorologists who had learned to forecast severe storms and TV and radio broadcasters who had enough foresight and willingness to come up with new and faster ways to get word to the people that bad things were about to happen in their world and how to protect themselves.

This year when tornadoes hit Kentucky and five people died, we didn't stop to think that before our modern warning systems the death toll would probably have been 100; we don't remember that we would lose one or two airliners full of passengers each year in wind shear crashes on takeoff or landing - we've only had one in the last 20 years because the meteorologists we are so quick to castigate figured out what a downburst was, how intensely powerful it could be and how to accurately forecast one and get a warning out so that airplanes stayed away from them. We also don't know how stupidly resistant the Federal Aviation Administration was to allowing such warnings to be transmitted or to sharing severe weather information it had with the non-aviation community. Mike Smith tells these stories in a riveting fashion.

Mike Smith had personal involvement in the rapidly developing world of saving lives by forecasting severe weather and warning people where it was going to hit. He writes about it in a style that is exciting; I found myself rescheduling appointments because I wasn't willing to stop reading. When I was done, I was convinced there should be a Nobel Prize for weather analysis and forecasting because it's saved so many lives.

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Must read, especially if you're from the Heartland May 26, 2010

By CandleCellar

Format:Hardcover

Amazing. This isn't just the true story of how science changed the weather, it's the true story of how weather science SAVED LIVES! Growing up in Kansas and going though two separate tornadoes, I truly appreciate the humble beginnings of weather forecasting and the dedicated men & women who grew the science.
And not only tornado forecasting, these men & women have made the skies safer for airline passengers and developed better warning and tracking systems for hurricanes. This book is a wonderful, informative and at times, jaw-dropping read. Highly recommended.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Entertaining and educational throughout May 24, 2010

By Cody Charvat

Format:Hardcover

As an Emergency Manager I give dozens of storm spotter classes every year, and coordinate the activities when our spotters and chasers are in the field, so I was especially intrigued to read how storm chasing came to be. But beyond that, everyone, regardless of vocation, has an interest in the weather, even if they only pay attention when it starts to turn nasty. Well even the occasional weather fan will be fascniated by the evolution of the warning system. Can you imagine if our weathermen were forbidden from telling us about an approaching tornado? You can if you read this book, because such was the case just a few decades ago. And for anyone more closely related to the field, especially those who responded to Katrina or Greensburg, Mike's stories will give you an even greater appreciation for the futility and heroism that were displayed.

'Warnings' is higly educational, but it reads nothing like a textbook. The writing is engaging and entertaining from cover to cover. Even if you're not yet convinced to buy it for yourself, if you know anyone with an interest in the weather, get it for them as a gift. If you're lucky, they'll let you read it when they're done.