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- Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
- Kategorie: Lebensstil
- Sprache: Englisch
- Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2020
"Weather For Dummies is probably the best book written for a general audience about the subject." --BILL GATES Find out what's really going on when it seems like the sky is falling with Weather For Dummies What exactly is happening when the wind blows, the clouds roll in, lightning flashes, and rain pours down? How do hurricanes whip into a frenzy, and where do tornadoes come from? Why do seasonal conditions sometimes vary so much from one year to the next? The inner workings of the weather can be a mystery, but Dummies can help. Packed with dozens of maps, charts, and stunning photographs of weather conditions, Weather For Dummies brings the science of meteorology down to earth, covering everything from weather basics to cloud types, seasonal differences, extreme weather events, climate change, and beyond. You'll learn how to: * Predict the weather and prepare a forecast * Use common weather terminology like a pro * Identify different types of clouds * Spot weather conditions that can lead to storms, hurricanes, tornadoes, and monsoons * Observe fun weather phenomena like lightning, rainbows, sundogs, and haloes * Talk about what impact weather has on the global ecosystem * Get a handle on smog, the greenhouse effect, global warming, and other climate issues Featuring clear explanations and fun and easy activities you can do at home, you'll be ready - rain or shine - for the ever-changing skies above with Weather For Dummies.
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Weather For Dummies®
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Library of Congress Control Number: 2020951377
ISBN: 978-1-119-80677-6 (pbk); 978-1-119-80678-3 (ebk); 978-1-119-80679-0 (ebk)
Weather For Dummies®
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Table of Contents
Cover
Title Page
Copyright
Introduction
About This Book
Foolish Assumptions
How This Book Is Organized
Icons Used in This Book
Where to Go from Here
Part 1: What in the World Is Weather?
Chapter 1: Forecasts and Forecasting
Forecasting Prophets
Making a Forecast
“We Interrupt This Program …”
Water, Water, Everywhere …
Flavors of Forecasts
Keywords to the Wise
Tools of the Trade
How to Read a Weather Map
Chapter 2: Behind the Air Wars
I Don’t Like Your Latitude!
Where the Armies Mass
News from the Fronts
Here Comes the Sun
The Big Picture
Putting on Airs
Chapter 3: Land, Sea, and Precipitation: Is This Any Way to Run a Planet?
Water’s Stirring Role
Rain to Rime: Forms of Precipitation
Dew to Fog: Forms of Condensation
Weather and the Land
Weather and the Ocean
Part 2: Braving the Elements
Chapter 4: Blowing in the Winds
Taking the Pressure
A World of Wind and Pressure
Bending the Winds
The Winds Aloft
The Westerlies
The Jet Streams
The Tradewinds
A Scattering of Winds
Chapter 5: Getting Cirrus
Making Clouds: The Heavy Lifting
A Question of Stability
Clouds by Class
Chapter 6: Climate Is What You Expect; Weather Is What You Get
Climate or Weather?
Climates of the World
What Makes Climates Different?
Climate and the Seasons
Pacific Body Parts
El Niño, His Cool Sister, and Their Kissing Cousins
Climates of the Past
Chapter 7: The Greatest Storms On Earth
Breeding Grounds
Mysteries
Birth of a Hurricane
Signals of the seasons
Cruise’n for a Bruise’n
Coming Ashore … But Where?
In Harm’s Way
Hurricane Force
Part 3: Some Seasonable Explanations
Chapter 8: The Ways of Winter
Winter’s “Official” First Day
It’s a Temperature Thing
Coast to Coast
Storms of Winter
Where They Come From
Where They Go
Name That Storm
When the Flakes Fly
Blizzards
Life and Limb
Chapter 9: Twists and Turns of Spring
When Has Spring Sprung?
Coast to Coast
Thunderstorms
Supercell
Hail the Size of Hailstones
Flash Floods
ZAP! Crack! Bam!
Downbursts
Really Twisted Winds
Tornado Alley
Forecasting
Lives and Limbs
Chapter 10: Extremely Summer
Good Ol’ Summer Timing
Coast to Coast
Avoiding That Radiant Feeling
The Heat Is On
Storms of Summer
Out of Whack
When It Rains Too Much …
When It Rains Too Little …
Chapter 11: Falling for Autumn
The Timing Thing
Falling Highs and Lows
Coast to Coast
In a Pigment’s Eye
Indian Summer
In the Fogs
Fires of the Wild West
Part 4: The Special Effects
Chapter 12: Taking Care of the Air
Polluting the Air
The Hole in the Sky
The Big Warm
Chapter 13: Up in the Sky! Look!
Seeing the Light
In Living Color
Why the Sky Is Blue
Reflecting on Clouds
Silver Linings
Blue Haze
Sunbeams
Sunrise, Sunset
The Green Flash
Rainbows
Haloes
Sun Dogs
Sun Pillars
Coronas
Glories
Mirages
Twinkle, Twinkle Little Air
Auroras
Chapter 14: Try This at Home
You’re Not Just an Amateur
Galileo and the Boys
Early American Weathermen
Watching Your Weather
Getting Fancy
Cool Weather Experiments
Part 5: The Part of Tens
Chapter 15: Ten (or So) Biggest U.S. Weather Disasters of the 20th Century
The Galveston Hurricane
The Dust Bowl
Super Tornado Outbreak, 1974
Hurricane Camille
The Great Midwest Flood
El Niño Episodes
Hurricane Andrew, 1992
New England Hurricane, 1938
Superstorm, March 1993
Tri-State Tornado, 1925
Tornado Outbreak of May 1999
The Great Okeechobee Flood and Hurricane of 1928
Florida Keys Hurricane, 1935
New England Blizzard, 1978
Storm of the Century, 1950
Chapter 16: Ten (or So) Worst World Weather Disasters of the 20th Century
Droughts
Floods
Typhoons, Cyclones, and Hurricanes
Winter Storms
Pollution
Chapter 17: Ten Crafty Critters
Cats
Dogs
Frogs
Ants
Birds
Caterpillars
Squirrels
Groundhog
Livestock
Fish
Chapter 18: Ten Grand Old Weather Proverbs
Red Sky at Night, Sailor’s Delight …
Clear Moon, Frost Soon
Early Thunder, Early Spring
After Frost, Warm …
Mare’s Tails and Mackerel Scales …
Rainbow in the Morning …
When Halo Rings the Moon …
Rain Long Foretold …
A Year of Snow, a Year of Plenty
In Like a Lion and Out Like a Lamb
Appendix: Internet Resource Directory
Government Web Sites
University Web Sites
Special Resources
Commercial Web Sites
Newsgroups
E-mail List
One Final Site …
Index
About the Author
Connect with Dummies
End User License Agreement
List of Tables
Chapter 7
TABLE 7-1 Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale
Chapter 9
TABLE 9-1 Interpreting the Fujita Scale
List of Illustrations
Chapter 1
FIGURE 1-1: This Heat Index was devised by the National Weather Service to show...
FIGURE 1-2: This official Wind Chill Index from the National Weather Service sh...
FIGURE 1-3: A National Weather Service forecaster releases a weather balloon.
FIGURE 1-4: Researchers service the instruments on a moored ocean buoy.
FIGURE 1-5: A typical weather map showing features and symbols that are common ...
Chapter 2
FIGURE 2-1: Imaginary lines called latitudes divide the world into the Tropics,...
FIGURE 2-2: The map shows the different air masses that affect weather in the c...
FIGURE 2-3: These diagrams illustrate what usually happens when cold fronts and...
FIGURE 2-4: Here’s what happens to the radiation from the Sun once it reaches t...
FIGURE 2-5: The Big Three behind the weather on Earth: its year-long orbit arou...
FIGURE 2-6: In summer, the Sun’s rays are more intense as they strike the atmos...
FIGURE 2-7: Here is a close-up view of Earth’s 23.5 degree slant and how it aff...
FIGURE 2-8: The gases that make up the atmosphere. The proportion of the gases ...
FIGURE 2-9: Here is a map of the atmosphere’s different layers.
Chapter 3
FIGURE 3-1: The basic elements of the water cycle.
FIGURE 3-2: The different faces of Earth.
FIGURE 3-3: This is a typical pattern that develops as winds force air up a mou...
FIGURE 3-4: The California Current and Gulf Stream affect U.S. weather.
Chapter 4
FIGURE 4-1: The general circulation of the atmosphere.
FIGURE 4-2: Summer winds circulating around the Bermuda High.
FIGURE 4-3: Summer winds circulating around the Pacific High.
FIGURE 4-4: Air pressure changes quickly with height.
FIGURE 4-5: The flow of air in the friction layer and aloft.
FIGURE 4-6: The effect of Earth’s rotation on a fast-traveling object.
FIGURE 4-7: Typical patterns of wind and pressure at the surface and aloft.
FIGURE 4-8: Typical westerly winds and jet-stream patterns in winter and summer...
FIGURE 4-9: The effect of warming and cooling on coastal and mountain breezes.
Chapter 5
FIGURE 5-1: Cloud formations caused by the advance of a cold front.
FIGURE 5-2: Cloud formations caused by the advance of a warm front.
FIGURE 5-3: Mountain ranges lift air and make storms on their windward side.
FIGURE 5-4: Main cloud types and their heights in the sky.
FIGURE 5-5: Cirrus clouds.
FIGURE 5-6: Cirroculmulus clouds.
FIGURE 5-7: Cirrostratus clouds.
FIGURE 5-8: Altocumulus clouds.
FIGURE 5-9: Altostratus clouds.
FIGURE 5-10: Stratocumulus clouds.
FIGURE 5-11: Stratus clouds.
FIGURE 5-12: Nimbostratus clouds.
FIGURE 5-13: Cumulus clouds.
FIGURE 5-14: Cumulonimbus clouds.
FIGURE 5-15: Lenticular clouds.
FIGURE 5-16: Mammatus clouds.
FIGURE 5-17: Mammatus clouds.
Chapter 6
FIGURE 6-1: Features of El Niño across the tropical Pacific.
FIGURE 6-2: Common winter weather impacts of El Niño.
FIGURE 6-3: Features of La Niña across the tropical Pacific.
FIGURE 6-4: Winter weather impacts linked to La Niña.
Chapter 7
FIGURE 7-1: Hurricane-prone regions of the world.
FIGURE 7-2: What a hurricane looks like from the inside.
FIGURE 7-3: How storm surge takes shape along a coastline.
FIGURE 7-4: Some individual hurricane tracks.
FIGURE 7-5: Deaths are down, but property damage and at-risk populations are wa...
Chapter 8
FIGURE 8-1: Earth’s tilt gives the Northern Hemisphere minimum exposure to sunl...
FIGURE 8-2: Dates when 32-degree tempertures usually arrive.
FIGURE 8-3: Annual amounts of precipitation throughout the United States.
FIGURE 8-4: A satellite image of a mid-latitude storm’s big “comma cloud” patte...
FIGURE 8-5: An overhead view of the main features of typical winter storm.
FIGURE 8-6: The conveyor belt model of a winter storm over the middle latitudes...
FIGURE 8-7: Major winter storm tracks across the United States.
FIGURE 8-8: The Mount Washington Observatory in New Hampshire.
FIGURE 8-9: Satellite photo of a Nor’easter storm.
FIGURE 8-10: A microphotograph of a snowflake by Wilson A. Bentley.
FIGURE 8-11: Common types of snowflakes.
Chapter 9
FIGURE 9-1: The number of days that thunderstorms are reported, on average, eac...
FIGURE 9-2: Life cycle of a single-cell thunderstorm.
FIGURE 9-3: A single-cell thunderstorm.
FIGURE 9-4: Inside a multicell cluster thunderstorm.
FIGURE 9-5: A multicell cluster thunderstorm.
FIGURE 9-6: A satellite image of a mesoscale convective complex.
FIGURE 9-7: Inside a squall line thunderstorm.
FIGURE 9-8: Satellite photo of a squall line of thunderstorms.
FIGURE 9-9: Inside a supercell thunderstorm.
FIGURE 9-10: A supercell thunderstorm.
FIGURE 9-11: The average number of days that hail is observed.
FIGURE 9-12: The electrical charges and lightning inside a thunderstorm.
FIGURE 9-13: When tornadoes are likely to occur.
FIGURE 9-14: Tornado Alley.
FIGURE 9-15: A thunderstorm explodes upward.
Chapter 10
FIGURE 10-1: Sun is at highest point in the sky over Northern Hemisphere.
FIGURE 10-2: Summer temperatures arrive at different times across the U.S.
FIGURE 10-3: Different coasts, very different air flows.
FIGURE 10-4: Rainy seasons for two cities at same latitude on opposite sides of...
FIGURE 10-5: Summer moisture is part of a giant air flow over the Atlantic Ocea...
FIGURE 10-6: Flash flood in the Midwest.
Chapter 12
FIGURE 12-1: The pattern of acid rainfall across the U.S. and Canada.
FIGURE 12-2: Mt. Pinatubo erupts in the Philippines.
FIGURE 12-3: Average temperatures dipped after Mt. Pinatubo erupted.
FIGURE 12-4: The trend in carbon dioxide in the atmosphere since 1750.
FIGURE 12-5: Average world temperatures since 1861.
FIGURE 12-6: Global temperatures since 1900.
Chapter 13
FIGURE 13-1: Silver lining around a growing cumulus cloud.
FIGURE 13-2: Rainbows are simply falling rain.
Chapter 14
FIGURE 14-1: An instrument shelter at a cooperative weather station in Granger,...
Guide
Cover
Table of Contents
Title Page
Begin Reading
Internet Resource Directory
Index
About the Author
Dedication
Acknowledgments
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Introduction
Weather is a big part of life. Certainly it is part of life in the sense that weather is something that everyone experiences more or less directly every day. And certainly weather’s extremes of storm and heat are something that most people have to put up with at one time or another.
But weather is part of life in a bigger sense. It is part of life in the same way that the air that you and I breathe is part of it. Often weather gets talked about as something that interferes with my travel plans or interrupts your picnic, but that is not the point. Without weather, there is no picnic. No food, no forest, no flowing fresh water.
What’s going on up there when the wind blows, when the clouds roll in, when the rain falls and the lightning flashes? To wonder about these things is to share some thoughts with the first people who poked their heads out of a cave and looked up into the dark sky of a violent storm. It is part of being human. This wondering about the weather came long before there was reading and writing and science, and long before there were reasonable explanations for these things. Some of the old explanations, you wouldn’t believe. The wind, the clouds, the rain, and the lightning make a lot more sense to the likes of you and me than they used to, but when all is said and done, you have to admit, still they are wonderful.
About This Book
The reasonable weather explanations that separate you and me from the folks poking out of the cave are part of the modern knowledge specialty of meteorology, which is the five-dollar word for the science of weather and climate. That’s what this book is all about. Weather scientists know the answers now to the basic questions about the changes that take place in the sky and plenty more.
Already you know more than you probably think you do about the weather. Phrases like “low pressure system” and “high pressure ridge” have become familiar, even if not quite understood. And images from space satellites of enormous arms and blotches of cloudiness slowly swirling over the surface of Earth appear on television screens as familiar as the faces of friends. Already you are ahead of people who wondered about the weather some 40 years ago before the satellites went into orbit and made the great size of storms so obvious.
So even before you tackle the details of the comings and goings in the air over your head, some congratulations are in order. In most times past, when people wondered about the weather, they were scared to death. They were frightened by the storms, and when they asked questions about them, they were frightened by the answers they got. If I told you it was the magic of the witch doctor, or the fact that the gods are angry, now you would laugh at me. You and I have come a long way, baby.
There is no right way to read this book, and no wrong way to read it either. You can read it straight through from the first page to the last, but you don’t need to. You don’t need to read Chapter 1, for example, to get a grip on the subjects covered in Chapter 2. Browse through it or start anywhere you like. If there’s something about how weather happens that’s been bugging you, just jump in and check it out. Weather For Dummies is your ready reference on the subject.
Foolish Assumptions
To write this book, I had to make some assumptions about you. I think you are somebody who enjoys watching the changes that take place in the sky from day to day, or month to month. You take some satisfaction in knowing what’s behind these changes. You like to know the meaning of the words you hear on the daily weather reports simply because you like to know the meaning of the words you hear. And from time to time, you have some questions about how the weather works.
You are a consumer of weather information. You are not a mathematician. You are not a weather scientist or forecaster. You have a natural curiosity about the weather, and a healthy respect for it. But you are not crazy-in-love-with-it like a storm chaser who runs out the door with a video camera at the first word of severe thunderstorms nearby. You are not a “weather geek,” someone who really wonders about the weather a lot and who devours every bit of information that they can find on the subject — although maybe you are a weather geek and you just don’t want to admit it yet. If this is the case, your secret is safe with me!
How This Book Is Organized
This book is divided into parts that break the big meal of weather science into easily digested portions. Here’s how it goes:
Part 1: What in the World Is Weather?
Weather For Dummies begins with weather science’s most popular finished product: the daily forecast. Without all the numbers and equations, this part describes what goes into making a forecast and understanding what it means. It lays out the terms that apply and the circumstances that make up weather emergencies.
Why is there weather? What basic forms does it take? This is where you find the answers to these questions. It explains why there are storms. It describes precipitation in all of its shapes and sizes. Here you get the idea of air masses meeting along fronts like opposing armies.
Why are there seasons? In this part, you get the big picture look at what makes the seasons and why they come around the way they do.
Part 2: Braving the Elements
Weather is a very popular subject when big storms are brewing or when things like summer temperatures are getting to be extreme. These are the weather celebrities that get all the media attention. And in this part, you find a chapter devoted to hurricanes, perhaps the biggest weather celebrities of all.
But behind every storm and every heat wave and every cold snap is a cast of characters that are responsible for the whole production. They make the winds blow. They form the clouds.
This part takes a look behind the scenes of weather and describes its basic elements. What is air pressure all about, and why is it such a big topic of discussion during the weather forecasts? This part answers that question and more and explains how air pressure drives the winds.
Do you know the names of the clouds? Can you tell one type of cloud from another? Here, you get the lowdown on all forms of clouds. And there are two pages of color photographs devoted to the basic cloud types that are spelled out in this part.
Another question keeps coming up: Who the heck is this El Niño, anyway, and what exactly do he and his sister have to do with the weather? In this part, find out all about El Niño and other climate conditions that make one winter different from another.
Part 3: Some Seasonable Explanations
Unless you live in the Tropics, near the Equator, where the Sun is high in the sky all year long, or near the polar regions, where the Sun’s rays never get very warm, the different times of year have different weather personalities. The different seasons bring different kinds of storms. And fair weather has a different feel to it from one season to the next.
This part looks at the story of weather the way it presents itself to people like you and me who live in the middle latitudes between the Tropics and the poles. It begins with the big storms of winter and focuses on the tornadoes of spring and the thunderstorms and temperature extremes of summer, and it takes a good look at autumn.
Take a look here at the seasons and see how different they are from one side of the United States to another and see what makes these differences so great.
Part 4: The Special Effects
There’s a lot going on in the sky. Unfortunately for people who live in many major cities, the sky over their heads is clogged with extra gases and other material that has been dumped into it. Weather doesn’t put that stuff up there, of course, but it sure has a lot to do with how bad it gets. In this part, read all about it.
When the sky is clear of pollution, some marvelous things are going on. Effects like rainbows and sun dogs and haloes that form around the Sun and the moon have been drawing rave reviews as long as people have been looking up. This part describes how the atmosphere bends the light and plays all sorts of tricks on your eyes.
Are you thinking about getting up close and personal with the weather? This part describes cool weather experiments and famous weather experimenters and takes a look at what you need to set up your own weather station.
Part 5: The Part of Tens
There is weather, and then there is weather. Once in a while, a storm or climate event like a drought comes along that is so terrible that it is remembered from one generation to another. It makes history. This part takes a look at the storms of the 20th century in the United States and around the world that made the weather Hall of Fame.
Before there was weather science, there were other ways of trying to figure out what the atmosphere was up to. This part gives you a good look at weather lore, some of the famous sayings and proverbs and signs that have been passed down through the ages.
Appendix
Where do you go from here? Weather data and other information about the weather is a huge part of the Internet, and in the Appendix, you can find a list of major weather Web sites to get you started in the right direction.
Icons Used in This Book
In the pages of Weather For Dummies are symbols that alert you to certain kinds of information. They help you sort through the wide variety of facts and details and put them in your own order. Here’s what these symbols mean.
This icon lets you know about a concept, or big idea, that is not just a detail about the weather, but is a whole train of thought on a subject. Big ideas are not complicated. In fact, they are simple. They’re important, or big, and worth checking out, because they help explain a lot of details.
Some words are just weather words. There are a whole lot of special weather words that scientists use all of the time when talking to each other, and this book avoids most of them. The ones you find at this symbol are included because they are helpful or interesting.
Some kinds of information are valuable because they make complicated things easy or they help cut through a lot of detail to a useful idea. That’s the kind of thing this symbol points out, an idea that makes things a little quicker or easier.
A lot of details are useful only to a specific subject, but some things are valuable to keep in mind because they help explain a variety of things. That kind of good-to-remember information is what this symbol identifies.
Some weather situations are so dangerous that they should be avoided always. Most of the dangers are pretty obvious, but not all of them. This symbol alerts you to extreme weather conditions where dangers are clear and present. It also points you to tips about what to do if you are hurt by the weather.
Don’t be alarmed by this nerdy-looking guy. The technical stuff included in this book is not really the heavy-duty number-crunching kind of thing that weather scientists do once in awhile. This symbol alerts you to stuff that’s just a little more technical than the rest.
Where to Go from Here
Go outside. I mean it. You’ve been spending too much time indoors, anyway, so close this book temporarily, tuck it under your arm, and head out the door. Go outside and give your sky a good looking-over. It’s your sky, and your weather, because nobody else sees it or feels it exactly like you do. Do you see clouds up there? Do you know how they form or what their names are? Do you know how much fun it is to start practicing identifying the clouds in your sky? If you don’t, it’s time to come back inside and open Weather For Dummies again. Chapter 5 is a good place to start.
Part 1
What in the World Is Weather?
IN THIS PART …
When human beings first looked up into the sky, chances are they saw the clouds before they saw the stars.
The road to understanding the weather has been as long and as hard as the road to understanding the heavens above it. It is so thin, so close to you, this layer of gases that makes the winds and clouds and storms, and yet still there are mysteries and surprises.
But everyday now, the fruits of this effort of understanding it is laid before you and me in a daily weather forecast that is — amazingly, when you think about it — pretty darned accurate!
In this part, I take a closer-than-usual look at the daily forecast, the work-in-progress of a big and remarkable science. And then I begin the plunge into the details, big and small, that make the weather.
