Topic: Favourite book on meteorology or storm chasing

[Shaun Galman]

Hi guys,
This is an extremely handy thread subject and definately saves heaps of time and headaches in researching the best books and weather guides!

I have just gotten hold of two very different books (my first reads to do with weather). The first is "A Concise Guide To Weather" By Julie Lloyd, published in 2007 by Parragon. It's 256pages with an image on almost every page and a small description below the image. It isn't technical in anyway but is good for "on-the-fly" cloud type identification and general info. Sells for around $8 which seemed a bargain to me?

The second and slightly more impressive is "Lightning" By Prof. Martin A. Uman. First published in 1969 but was enlarged and corrected in 1983 (though I have just seen a new version published 2007 which may be a wiser choice) and done by McGraw-Hill Book Company and is around 300pages. If you want to get deep into the technical specs of lightning then this is the book for you! It covers most everything from Step Leaders, all the way through to thunder with mathematical representation graphs to help with understanding, though I feel unless you've studied engineering sciences or mathematics you may feel slightly intimidated. A good read none-the-less and I will try to get hold of the 2007 version at some point

Cheers and take care
Shauno

[Mike]

Hey Shauno,  I'll keep that lightning book on file for later research.

 A few sites that provide extensive and layman's terms for storm spotting/observation is at http://extremeinstability.com - Mike Hollingshead's site.  The storm info section can be made into a 'book' if you make one up and it has diagrams, photos and good easy to read text.

The other is http://weatherprediction.com - Jeff Haby's site, he's a meteorologist in the US and gives technical and well set out explanations of just about everything.  I've made a few reference books up for myself to research and use when planning to chase and when out in the field.

All good reading once you get everything you want compiled.

Mike

[Shaun Galman]

G'day Mike,
Thanks kindly for the website info. I'm familiar (and a huge fan) of Mike Hollingshead's extremeinstability.com but I will surely check out weatherprediction.com as soon as I get some free "knowledge absorbing" time!

Regards.
Shauno

[Mike]

I should have said that they're not 'books' per se - but you can make the information into one or several   I've got around 23 made up 'books' that range from the basic storm glossary to articles and conference material on hurricanes/tropical stuff and more.  Some of my reference books are just as thick as books!  It's hard to find good weather material up here - in fact it's next to zip -so i have to take the initiative and do my own!

Has anyone got the other names of the books that Bluestein put out?

Mike

[vrondes]

Yes, the Mike Hollingshead site is a wealth of information. He, along with Mike Umscheid and Eric Nguyen are among the finest storm photographers in the U.S.  Sadly, Eric Nguyen had passed away earlier this month.  He leaves behind a marvellous legacy of severe weather images and knowledge on recording severe weather phenomena. Con.

[supercellwish]

Guys I dont have anybooks on storm chasing. However two books I do have (but have barely read) are the ones that you must read as part of Civil aviation authority Cylibus for you first levels of pilots license. your student permit, private and first level of commercial permits. I cant remember their names, and I think theres a few that are accepted by CASA, but I remeber thinking "do I need to know all this to be a pilot" basically you wouldnt be far from a met man (meteorologist) after reading these (provided you understood it) they are very thick and have the ins and outs of ducks bum on meteorology. Theres two volumes, each is 400 pages at least. But they're packed away in boxes as we just moved houses. Oh yes and I AM NOT a pilot. (thank god you all say lol) I only ever got 11 hours toward it. @ $170 per+ it was too expensive for me once I lost my job at the time. Now im studying. Well thats my excuse and im sticking to it :D

2nd thing I wanna say is. I wanna write a book on storm chasing. Not so much weather, climate or general weather forecasting, but Storm chasing alone. Of course it would have to touch on the other aspects of weaher. But primarily storm forecasting. It wil have lotsa drawings it will be simple enough for primary school age children to understand. That way when lay ppl read it, they will very easily be able to get there heads around it. There may even be a requiremeant for two versions or volumes. A beginers guide and an advanced guide to storm chasing. Any one wanna colaborate on it with me. Any body in the publishing industry? Infact im gonna start writing it now. I think il start with some drawings. Say im pretty good with Autodesk 3dsMax, perhaps I can do the graphics in 3D Hmm, I could really use some help. Especially from actual met men and women (so as to make sure im putting in fact not myth or here say). What do you recon John Allen, could you help? Maybe a word on safety from our Australian Storm chasing mascott and ambassador Jimmy D. Sounds like a rappers name lol Jimmy D. Seriously though I really going to do this. So gimmie an email

[Jimmy Deguara]

Hi Supercellwish,

Sounds like a good dream - and if you have a dream stick to it. I can try and assist in part if you require help but at this point in time very busy of course. I personally am not the best when it comes to writing grammar wise btu I am pretty sure there are others around with a very concise vocabulary.

Good luck!

Regards,

Jimmy Deguara

[Mike]

Would any members know where online I can get hold of Futjita's books 'The downburst' and 'DFW microburst' ?  They must be rare as - well you know - if anyone has a copy of either and knows the publishing house or where they got them i'd appreciate it greatly.

Mike

[Shaun Galman]

Hi guys,
Not a book as such but finally.. a decent weather magazine has come along so I thought I'd share it here anyway.

I have come across a new magazine entitled Extreme Weather! It has been put out in collaboration with the USA Astronomy mag.
I wondered if anyone else has come across this? I picked it up in our newsagent around 2 weeks ago.
The stories are pretty good to say the least, covering Supercellular Storms, Tornado's, Lightning, Dust Storms, Climate Change and Hurricanes. There are great illustrations and descriptions of cloud formations and subsequent storm formation along with a great chase documentation of the May 4th 2007 Greensburg Tornado by Warren Faidley. There are spectacular images from the US great plains as is to be expected, along with some stunning lightning images.

There is a website listed fro the mag on the cover- www.extremeweathermag.com

I sure hope I'm not the only one to have spotted this special issue first edition!
Could this possibly spawn an aussie version? One can only hope! :D

Take care,
Shauno

[Steven]

My first weather book titled "An Australian Geographic Guide to Weather" was indeed a great resource for learning the weather in basic terms. It explains all weather phenomena, cloud formations, precipitation, snow and other weather related folklore, I'm sure some in the weather community have heard of this book. It was published in 1999.

[phix]

If you have any favourite on meteorology or storm chasing (as many you wish), please feel free to post your thoughts on the book. Please list the full title, author and so forth.

the chapter that helped me most was Howard bluesteins brief explanation of supercell dynamics in *Synoptic-Dynamic Meteorology in Midlatitudes: Volume II*  it took me a few weeks to bring graphics and formula together and i guess i have at least a glimpse of understanding rotating things in the atmosphere ...

i can also recommend some of chuck doswells essays... http://www.cimms.ou.edu/~doswell/Essays_index.html

i know this is overall a quite technical approach to storm dynamics, observation and experience are most important components, IMHO, and they are  not mentioned in these books and articles..

regards

Manfred