Storms, Floods, and Sunshine: Isaac Monroe Cline : An Autobiography With a Summary of Tropical Hurricanes (Hardcover)

~ Isaac Monroe Cline (Author) "TENNESSEE, like all Gaul, is divided into three parts..." (more)
Key Phrases: New Orleans, United States, Gulf of Mexico (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Cline was a noted meteorologist in the Southern United States during the first half of the 20th century, gaining notoriety for accurately forecasting the Galveston hurricane of 1900. Cline himself contends that his prescience saved thousands of lives, but Erik Larson's Isaac's Storm (LJ 7/99) argues otherwise. In addition to his scientific endeavors, Cline was a devotee of art and antiques, all of which receive ample discussion here. This edition contains a new foreword by meteorologist Nash Roberts.
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Description

In the Galveston hurricane of 1900 -- the most fatal natural disaster in US history -- more than 6000 souls perished. Yet the number would have been nearly doubled, had it not been for the warnings of Dr Isaac Monroe Cline, who began his own life in the most modest of surroundings...but with the grandest of dreams. Although he grew up on a farm in Tennessee, all Kline ever wanted to do was study the forces of nature. To that end, he even obtained a medical degree solely so he could study the effect of weather on human health. He later joined the newly formed weather service and, fatefully, was stationed at Galveston when the great hurricane struck. He was subsequently posted to New Orleans to cure the wildly inaccurate weather forecasts that had become an embarrassment to the service. While there he gathered and restored early American portraits as a hobby, and Cline's collection helped form the nucleus of the National Portrait Gallery. Yet the man the Associated Press called 'the smiling, genial climatological genius' never derived from his lifelong goal to study the weather. One hundred years after the Galveston hurricane, Isaac Monroe Cline is revered as a true pioneer in his field.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 352 pages
• Publisher: Pelican Publishing Company; 3rd edition (November 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1565547667
• ISBN-13: 978-1565547667
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.4 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,477,228 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Well-written autobiography by a meteorologist...who knew!, January 19, 2000

By	David Roth (Montgomery Village, MD United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

In a field of science where writing can be used more as a weapon than as a tool for understanding, Isaac Cline still shines as a meteorologist who knew how to write in a way most anyone can understand, without "dumbing up" the prose. The only thing missing are pictures, charts, and diagrams, if for no other reason than as a necessary break from all the text. His short chapters work to the book's advantage.

Even after 49 years, the spirit of the author comes alive in his writings. He was in a unique situation - witnessing the birth of the National Weather Service, and leading to its eventual acceptance from a public unable to believe anyone could make a one hour forecast, let alone one for two days!

He expanded the role of the NWS in his 55-year career, and now has an award named after him, long after his demise. He lived to a ripe old age, doing what he loved most. His personality is in full effect - he comes across arrogant at times, and uses shameless self-promotion in order to get everyone to know all the contributions he has made to meteorology and Early American Art. It was, and still is, well deserved, however.

He goes over his role in the Galveston Hurricane, the 1915 New Orleans Hurricane, and numerous Mississippi River Floods, including the great crevasse of 1927. He put most of the pieces of the hurricane puzzle together, and advanced the science significantly. He raised a family, and still found time to restore old paintings and make great contributions to his community in Galveston and New Orleans throughout his life.

The lessons he learned in life were hard, but it helped make him the man he was. His story is still fresh, even after all these years. This book is well worth owning, and is valuable in its historical information. Meteorologists and local historians could do worse than do read/own this work.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars PLUNG'D IN THE FOAMING BRINE, July 20, 2001

By	Patrick Hubbell (Victoria, TX) - See all my reviews

Isaac Monroe Cline, writing of a storm he weathered off the coast of Veracruz, Mexico, made the prescient comment that "This was my first experience in a tropical cyclone, but it was not to be my last." Prescient, that is, for native Galvestonians who have listened to stories of the fateful, terrible Great Storm of 1900 from their forebears. I myself am a descendant of a survivor of an event that binds people together like Pearl Harbor survivors. Every B.O.I. (Born On the Island), it seems, had someone in the family or knew someone who made it through the night on September 8 one century ago.

Storms, Floods and Sunshine is one book that will be indispensable to storm descendants and Texas history aficionados. It is the autobiography of Isaac Cline, the weatherman who followed the storm as it crossed the Gulf of Mexico after its birth under the sweltering West African sun, traveling thousands of miles across the Atlantic Ocean, cutting a swath of destruction across Cuba before turning its fury directly on the industrious city of Galveston, the Wall Street west of the Mississippi and number one cotton port in the nation.

The chapters are short and the sentences are spare of the sentimental, flowery rhetoric one might expect of a Victorian-age Southerner born at the cusp of the Civil War in 1861. His life was one of Masonic diligence, Franklin-like in his pursuit of science and the betterment of mankind, shunning distractions like strong drink, gambling, even the company of women, until he could convince himself that perhaps the soft touch of a woman's hand could help him in social advancement.

Predictably, the longest chapters concern the development of weather technology, from its infancy under the Signal Corps of the U.S. Army., the political undercurrents, the infighting, and the agricultural aggrandizement. There are some snippets of humor, such as one forecaster who typed up the forecast for the week, submitted it to the newspaper, and took off fishing.

"History does not record a greater disaster in the United States, than that which occurred at Galveston, Texas, on September 8, 1900."

The one chapter that stands out, of course, is the one which changed the lives of thousands of residents and the course of a city. It materially changed Cline's life as well--he lost his wife in the disaster. Curiously, he is very silent about her other than a short description of how they met. Perhaps the memory of her death was too painful to relate in the wake of a hurricane that took at least 6,000 lives.

Some of the asides and anecdotes may strike the modern reader as a little bizarre. To put it in perspective, the writer is, after all, a devout Methodist who put aside a promising career as a preacher to study medicine and the weather. For example, a whole chapter is devoted to the novel idea that the ark was actually built in America--near the swamps of Florida and North Carolina, to be exact. Yet even here he marshals evidence he considers scientific, such as wood type and ocean currents. Plausible, maybe. Unusual, certainly.

It is a firsthand account of someone who helped a neglected branch of science become an essential part of our understanding of the natural world today. As Cline writes, "The slow progress made in the study of weather is surprising. The barometer was not invented until 1643, and the special study of weather and its changes did not receive much attention until two hundred years later."

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating autobiography of a famed meteorologist, July 26, 2006

By	jeanne-scott (Asan, Guam) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)

After reading several books about the Sept. 8th, 1900 hurricane that decimated Galveston, Texas (The Windows of Heaven, Weekend In September, The Great Galveston Disaster, Death From The Sea, Isaac's Storm and Through a Night of Horror) I found this book, an autobiography of Isaac Cline. It is an interesting look at a man who was at the forefront of understanding the need to accurately predict weather phenomenon in order to protect people whose lives could otherwise be lost and whose homes and businesses were imperiled.
Isaac Cline was born in a log cabin on a small farm in Tennessee. His favorite book to read was the Bible, followed soon after by the writings of Jules Verne. Isaac wanted to one day write a great book on a matter of science, although in what area he was not then certain. He attended college through a combination of hard work and generosity, and was encouraged to become a preacher but realized that this was not truly in his heart.
He flourished in the science and math classes. In 1871 the U.S. Weather Service was formed and this gave rise to the opportunity to chose a scientific career where he could indulge his passion for science and research. Isaac Cline would eventually be known as the Weather Service man on Galveston who realized what was happening and put himself in danger to warn residents to flee. His personal losses were high.
He was also sent for a time to New Orleans where he realized that the potential for disaster from a hurricane in that region was all but inevitable.
His research into tide tables, wind velocities, the storm surge, and figuring out the spiraling pattern of hurricanes are just a few of the advancements that can be credited to this fascinating man.
Isaac Cline was also a collector of art in several forms, having some personal collections that were at times unrivaled for their quality and quantity.
Some of the chapters in this book have a provincial feel to them, due to the fact that they were written in a different era, but the wide variety and experiences that Isaac Cline relates show his unique personality and depth of character.