Weather Forecasting Handbook, 4th ed. [Paperback]

Tim Vasquez (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 1, 2000

The Information Age has blossomed and now anyone can run a weather center from their own office or home. Unfortunately, nearly all popular weather books are nothing more than essays on the science of meteorology. The Weather Forecasting Handbook breaks this mold by explaining all the latest forecasting principles, techniques, and tools.

Basic physical concepts are reviewed, and commonly-employed analysis methods are presented. Then weather systems are explained in terms of their thermal structure, dynamics, and effects. Special problems such as thunderstorms, winter weather, and tropical weather get chapters of their own. Margins are filled with forecasting facts, hard-hitting quotes, education stories, and even a few fun weather jokes. With added emphasis on analysis, visualization, and awareness of model limitations, readers learn to learn tools properly and are always a step ahead.

The Weather Forecasting Handbook is a must-have for all meteorology students, advanced weather hobbyists, professionals, weathercasters, storm chasers, sailors, and pilots. Whether you want to know how a short wave works, how to find a front, what isentropic surfaces are, how to analyze a 500-millibar chart, what type of vertical motion to expect around jet streaks, or why a high pressure area is building, the Weather Forecasting Handbook's no-nonsense approach will give you a solid foundation to understanding everyday forecasting problems.

146 illustrations, 7 x 10", color cover.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Clearly describes forecasting methods... explains many scientific terms in words and pictures." -- Sander Schimmelpenninck, Bulletin of the Canadian Meteorological and Oceanographic Society

About the Author

Tim Vasquez draws on an extensive tapestry of meteorological experience, which started in his childhood years in California, Germany, the Philippines, Arizona, and Texas. After managing the weather page of a Dallas newspaper for five years, he spent ten years in the Air Force, where he provided aviation weather forecasting and support in Texas, Nevada, England, Korea, and Kenya, as well as television work for AFRTS and KTXS-12 in Abilene. Tim has been an active storm chaser since 1986, an activity where there is no tolerance for forecasting errors. He has also written a suite of weather forecasting tools used extensively within the weather industry, such as Digital Atmosphere. Tim is owner of Weather Graphics Technologies and lives near Norman, Oklahoma with his wife Shannon.

Product Details

• Paperback: 163 pages
• Publisher: Weather Graphics Technologies; 4th Rev edition (December 1, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0970684002
• ISBN-13: 978-0970684004
• Product Dimensions: 9.8 x 7 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,427,254 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars A major disappointment, September 23, 2003

By 

Peter J. Adams (Pittsburgh, PA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Weather Forecasting Handbook, 4th ed. (Paperback)

I have several problems with this book:

1) The book never tells you how to forecast. It would be nice if it told you, in a step by step fashion, how to predict precipitation and temperature at a certain location. Although he gives general descriptions of how weather phenomenon evolve, the detail is not sufficient for forecasting. The end of the book gives a bunch of surface and upper-level charts as "analysis exercises". The book, however, does not describe how to perform an analysis of a raw chart or give finished analyzed diagrams for you to check your work. It does tell you how to read charts, but this is easy and free to learn off the web. The only case where the author details forecasting tools is for tornado prediction. I know there are a lot of storm chasers out there who care only for tornados (the author lives in Oklahoma, so he may have a little storm chaser in his blood) but this is supposed to be a general forecasting book, not a tornado book. In one section, the book promises more material and more details in "future editions".

2) It's not clear if it's meant for beginners or experienced forecasters. Many basic principles are introduced (e.g. Coriolis effect) but other parts of the book seem to be written for experts. There are descriptions of barotropic and baroclinic weather systems without ever clearly defining what is meant by either. There are several places where the author says forecasting is difficult and you should use "common sense". How will this help a beginner?

3) It is riddled with typos and other errors. There are more spelling errors than one would like to see, but these are easy to correct in your head. More seriously, I have counted numerous instances where the author says "upward" when he meant "downward", "eastward" where he meant "westward" and so on. For a book that is in its 4th edition, this is unbelievably sloppy. Also, there are sections where the author has cut and paste from other sections and just changed a few words.

4) The production values of the book are very poor. The diagrams are often rough hand sketches, reproductions of charts are often difficult to read, and nothing is labeled very well. There are several reproductions of radar soundings that are rough blobs. The caption refers to features you are supposed to see (and I suppose they would be obvious to an expert). But there are no arrows pointing out the features, so if you are not an experienced meteorologist, you will probably only see a blob.

You will probably learn something from reading this book whether you are an expert or a beginner, but it won't justify the time you spend or the price you pay. There must be other, better books out there.

Incidentally, I have a Ph.D. in engineering, a good knowledge of general fluid mechanics, teach at a university, and publish in the domain of air pollution (more on the chemistry side than meteorological side). I was hoping for a forecasting book that would give more practical guidance on forecasting (I understand the basic scientific principles) but this book is a disappointment.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Outstanding weather forcasting handbook for enthusiast!!, April 4, 2001

By 

Greg Higgins (Fort Worth, Texas) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Weather Forecasting Handbook, 4th ed. (Paperback)

Tim has taken his vast experience in meterology and presents the latest in the basic's and advanced forcasting principles, techniques and tools in an easy to understand format. What the reader gains is a "hands-on" approach of weather forcasting that rivials more technical literature.Tim also adds several humerous anecedants to further enhance the text along with numerous pictures and graphs. This is a book that is sure to become well worn and dog-eared from constant use!

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Unique book for weather enthusiasts!, November 13, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Weather Forecasting Handbook, 4th ed. (Paperback)

What I LOVE about this book is that it presents tons of information about weather and meteorology at a level no other book approaches! It seems every other book I've seen is either terribly dry and full of math that is way beyond me, or glosses over everything and leaves me feeling cheated. This book fills the gap in between those extremes quite well. First class.