A few days ago I had the privilege of shopping at Ollie’s Bargain Outlet in State College, PA.  While perusing the numerous books, games, and such on sale at what I thought were extremely discounted prices, I came across an interesting miniature guide on the weather entitled The Rough Guide to Weather by Robert Henson (ISBN: 1-85828-827-4) sitting adjacent to the Discovery Channel videos.  The book was only $10, so I figured why not buy it and add it to my reference collection on naturally-occurring events.  And now having had an opportunity to flip through the book and absorb its contents, I am very glad I made I made this purchase.

The Rough Guide is divided into six sections as follows:

• “The Ingredients” section describes all the “actors” and associated phenomenologies on the weather stage, to include the sun, wind, atmosphere, ocean, earth, climate zones, and so on.  This section has very interesting factoids about how weather affected humans from before the “age of observing,” explanations of what the atmosphere is, how light is diffracted to form rainbows, “where the wind goes,” and so on.  Basically, in fewer than 50 pages the author provides a layman’s summary of how the Earth’s weather system works.
• “The Wild Stuff” section describes in detail weather hazards (which by the way are only hazards because humans label them as such; without humans there to suffer loss, these “weather hazards” are merely “weather events”).  The events considered include rain, snow, freezing rain and sleet, fog, thunderstorms, hail, tornadoes, hurricanes and tropical cyclones, coastal storms, other windstorms, floods, drought, El Niño and La Niña.  The author provides a thorough, yet accessible, description of each event type supplemented with informative pictures and tone box asides.
• The “Forecasts and How to Read Them” section provides a brief description of the role of weather forecasts in society and how its role and supporting technologies evolved over the past few centuries.  In addition, this section offers advice on how to interpret weather forecasts and warnings with some detail on the how weather predictions come about.
• “A Primer on Global Climate Change” provides a short, but sweet, discussion on how rising temperatures will affect weather and people.  Nothing too significant here that you couldn’t get in better detail elsewhere.
• The “Weather from Around the World” section is perhaps the most useful part of this whole book.  This section provides a narrative account of the weather for 200 destinations worldwide.  But this book provides more than facts and figures; the author provides a concise and highly informative meteorological story for each destination that may include reference to its history, geography, demographics, size, climate, and so on.  Basically, this section of the book makes for a handy reference to a country intelligence or risk analyst interested in environmental hazards for their target.  I will provide three short country story excerpts to show you what I mean:

Syria. Syria epitomizes Middle Eastern climate, with a Mediterranean wet-winter regime on the coast and a desert that spans most of the country east of a narrow strip of coastal mountains. Damascus is part of the Fertile Crescent, a transition zone near the Lebanon border that just gets enough moisture to keep the desert at arm’s length.  Winters are chilly in the mountains and adjacent plateau, with a bout of rain once or twice a week and a day or two of snow possible in Damascus.  Snows are more heavy and frequent a high elevations.  The rains stop from June through August, which are hot by day but relatively cool by night – except across the deserts, where even the nights sizzle in midsummer.  Winter in the deserts can bring a few days of light rain and even an occasional dusting of snow. (pp. 288-289)

Nigeria. Africa’s most populous nation, Nigeria has a climate regime similar to that of the Guinea-coast nations to its west, as the ITCZ brings wet weather northward from March to May and southward from October to December.  Only the extreme north is semi-arid in classic Sahel style, while parts of the lower Niger delta are drenched with more than 3000mm/118in of rain each year.  The Lagos area is the least sodden trench of coastline, though its humidity – and the heat radiating from urban sprawl – help maintain a sticky atmosphere year round.  The immediate coast experiences a major dry period in winter with heaviest rains in late spring and early summer, followed by a brief dry spell around August and a second pulse of rain into October.  Harmattan dust storms are a perennial winter problem, especially toward the north. (p. 307)

Maldives. Perhaps the most telling aspect of the Maldive’s climate isn’t local but global.  The slow worldwide rise in sea level threatens to inundate much of this island nation within the next century.  There’s little high ground here: the tallest atolls barely top 2m/6ft.  Since the Maldives straddle the equator, wet seasons vary, but they tend toward summer half of the year.  Temperatures hardly vary at all, staying sultry even for a tropical locale.  Only the northernmost Maldives are at risk from tropical cyclones. (p. 336)

• Finally, the “Resources” section provides a list of classic (e.g., Aristotle) and modern references for the budding meteorologist, a list of websites for meteorological organizations and worldwide weather agencies, a discussion of the impact of weather on health (infectious disease, sunburn, etc.), and a few tables that aid in converting pressure, temperature, and windspeed between different measurement systems.

I must say that this book is not bad for $10.  But if you want this book, I wouldn’t run to Ollie’s just yet.  A quick search on Amazon revealed to me at least one seller willing to part with this book for a quarter ($0.25).  On Alibris one could order this book for $1.99 (+ shipping).  Of course these prices are for used copies of the book, though they still may be in pristine condition (I am doubtful about the 25-cent copy, though).

As far as credibility goes, the “Acknowledgments” section on the front-side of the third sheet of paper (not numbered) states that this book has been reviewed by quite a large number (say >50, but I didn’t count the names listed) of scientists and experts in weather science from around the globe.  However, the books lacks any actual bibliographic citations and offers minimal information on the author’s credentials save for a very uninformative blurb on the rear cover telling the reader than “Robert Henson is a meteorologist.”  Thus, we are left having to accept the fact that the book is published in the wake of expert criticism as evidence of its credibility.  But was the decision to publish contingent on favorable reviews from all, or perhaps even a majority of experts?  Or was it up to the author to simply appeal to experts on his own, selectively choose weather to accept the feedback, and then submit a final draft that may or may not be accurate?  While I have no reason to suggest that the book is inaccurate, additional meta-data on the author and publication processes would enable me to increase my subjective confidence in the credibility of this reference.

Oh, and if you are as excited as I am about meteorology, check out the meteorology certificate program at the USDA Graduate School.  For the cost of 25 credit-hours of class (and all that entails in terms of time and lost opportunities, and price per credit hour), anyone can acquire the intuition for meteorological events.  The good news for engineers, scientists, and many other college course takers (current or retired) is that the credit-burden is only 21-credits if you have already completed a course in differential and integral calculus.  The remaining courses in physical, satellite, dynamic, and synoptic meteorology, however, are probably ones we all have to take regardless of background (meteorology majors excluded).

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