The Weather Wizard's Cloud Book: A Unique Way to Predict the Weather Accurately and Easily by Reading the Clouds [Paperback]

Louis D. Rubin Sr. (Author), Jim Duncan (Author), Hiram J. Herbert (Contributor)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 9, 1989

To predict what the weather ahead will be, take these three easy steps: figure out which way the wind is blowing; look at the clouds; match what you see there with one of the full-color cloud photographs in The Weather Wizard's Cloud Book.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"You don't want to start the new year without [it]." -- San Francisco Chronicle

About the Author

Jim Duncan is a graduate meteorologist and weather anchorman for WWBT - Channel 12 in Richmond, Virginia.

Hiram J. Herbert is a contributor for the following Algonquin Books Title: The Weather Wizard's Cloud Book.

The late Louis D. Rubin, Sr.,was a self-taught weather forecaster whose long-range predictions earned him the title of "The Weather Wizard."

Product Details

• Paperback: 71 pages
• Publisher: Algonquin Books (January 9, 1989)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0912697105
• ISBN-13: 978-0912697109
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.1 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #477,322 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #9 in Books > 4-for-3 Books > Science > Earth Sciences > Rivers
  • #15 in Books > 4-for-3 Books > Outdoors & Nature > Environment > Weather

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

109 of 110 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars On-the-Spot Forecasting, March 20, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: The Weather Wizard's Cloud Book: A Unique Way to Predict the Weather Accurately and Easily by Reading the Clouds (Paperback)

I first read this book when my math teacher lent it to me. Since then, I have gotten my own copy of this book and use it quite often. To get an idea of what the weather will be like within the next 24 hours, all you need to know is the wind direction and the cloud type. A quick glance through the book will do the rest. My only complaint is that it is sometimes hard to find the correct type of cloud in the book, as clouds do not always conform to the general pictures in the book. For help in identifying the cloud type, I would recommend the NATIONAL AUDUBON SOCIETY FIELD GUIDE TO NORTH AMERICAN WEATHER. The pictures in there are wonderful, clear and really help a lot. Otherwise, THE WEATHER WIZARD'S CLOUD BOOK has proved very useful while away from a weather broadcast. If you're outdoors and away from a T.V. or radio station often, this book is a must.

28 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Small Gem of a Book..., June 17, 2006

By 

Mark "Bottom line only please..." (Raleigh, NC) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Weather Wizard's Cloud Book: A Unique Way to Predict the Weather Accurately and Easily by Reading the Clouds (Paperback)

This small hard to find book (unless you order it online) starts with a basic premise: to predict the weather you need to do 2 things-determine the direction of the wind and identify the clouds currently in the sky. That being said, I would consider this book a great primer for anyone interested in naked eye weather forecasting.

The book includes color cloud charts, discusses weather folklore, precipitation, warm and cold fronts, and volcanic eruptions.

This a general primer. The information is not spoon fed to the reader.

The strength of this approach is Rubin's writing is entertaining and lively, and will enourage you to not only make your own weather predictions, but to also seek more information outside the scope of the book.

The weakness is that some of the material is incomplete. The book was completed by Louis Rubin's children with the help of a meteorologist after Rubin passed away (based on the Introduction), using Rubin's cloud photo collections and his collected writings.

As a result, some of the material is incomplete. For example, Rubin describes the 4 types of clouds and the 10 specific clouds most associated with weather changes. You then have to search all over the book to find those 10 clouds, and even then, you're not sure (based on the prefixed names) if you're looking at the right photographs. I suspect at the time of his passing, Rubin's cloud photo collection was far from complete.

That being said, I still liked the book, consider it a keeper, and respect Rubin's work in this area as an amateur meteorologist.

22 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Superb, portable, and incomplete, May 16, 2007

By 

Robert D. Steele (Oakton, VA United States) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Weather Wizard's Cloud Book: A Unique Way to Predict the Weather Accurately and Easily by Reading the Clouds (Paperback)

I bought this book in preparation for an advanced mariner's meteorology course, and could not have made this comment without having first gained that higher level of knowledge.

This is a suberb book with two major flaws:

1) It sticks to the two-dimensional depiction of weather that is common to the average person. Although there are a couple of illustrations showing altitude, the author could easily have put in a few pages on the rotation of the earth, the 500 mb level, and how weather on the surface cannot be understood without underestanding what is happening at the 18,000 level. As my instructor put it, the high-level troughs are the chicken that hatches the surface level (scrambled) egg.

2) It provides the pictures of the clouds, but missed the key chance to break down the names into the original latin meanings, to create a matrix of high (Cirro), medium (alto), and low (strato), with substantive meaning including layer (stratus), curly (cirrus), stacked in a vertical heap (cumulo-cumulus), and delivering rain (nimbus).

Add this little matrix above, and read "Mariner's Guide to the 500-Millibar Chart" by Joe Stenkiewicz and Lee Chesneau, and Google for <Lee Chesneau> to find his web site, and you'll have all you need to move to the better three-dimensional interactive viewing of weather and weather charts.

I also recommend Understanding Weatherfax