Windswept: The Story of Wind and Weather

by Marq de Villiers

Although sometimes enormously destructive, wind is also one of the elements that make life on Earth possible. Without it, the intense solar radiation beating down on the tropics would have no way of escaping. Wind warms the higher latitudes and moderates the equatorial regions, and carries evaporated moisture from oceans to land, where the moisture descends as rain. Wind sculpted the rivers that nurtured the earliest of human civilizations. Even hurricanes are an essential part of the planet's self-regulatory system.
Windswept is the story of humankind's long struggle to understand wind and weather―from the wind gods of ancient times to early discoveries of the dynamics of air movement to high-tech schemes to control hurricanes. Marq de Villiers is equally adept at explaining the science of wind as he is at presenting dramatic personal stories of encounters with gales and storms. Running through his narrative is the dramatic story of Hurricane Ivan, the only storm on record to three times reach Category 5 status (sustaining winds greater than 155 miles per hour) in its path of death and destruction from the Sahara to North America, where it traveled from Texas to Newfoundland. We have made great strides in understanding how wind affects weather, but much is left to learn about how global warming and pollution may impact the winds themselves. The stakes are high because, as Hurricane Katrina so vividly reminded us, anything that affects the winds eventually affects human life.

Genres: Science, Nonfiction, Nature, Ebooks, History, Popular Science

352 pages, Hardcover

First published April 18, 2006

About the author

Born in South Africa, Marq de Villiers is a veteran Canadian journalist and the author of thirteen books on exploration, history, politics, and travel, including Water: The Fate of Our Most Precious Resource (winner of the Governor General's Award for Non-Fiction). He has worked as a foreign correspondent in Moscow and through Eastern Europe and spent many years as editor and then publisher of Toronto Life magazine. More recently he was editorial director of WHERE Magazines International. He lives in Port Medway, Nova Scotia. [Penguin Canada]

Reviews

[Kate · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am just nerdy enough to have a favorite element, and it's the wind. this book is everything you may want to know about the wind--where it comes from, how it works, how it interacts with geography and humidity and heat. Very interesting. de Villiers uses Hurricane Ivan as a running narrative throughout the book as he describes various aspects of wind and forecasting. He's had a lot of negative experiences with wind, and he lives on the eastern seaboard, so he's always braced for a nor'easter or a hurricane snaking up the coast from the US--the book's focus seems to be on those events, but he does give nods to other wind events, like tornadoes and various sorts of winds that are specific to certain geographies (sirrocos, for instance). He also throws in a fair amount of fun facts, just to keep it interesting, and he can be pretty funny, too.

[J.M. Hushour · Rating 4 out of 5]

Break like the wind. Using the tromp of Hurricane Ivan from its teensy beginnings as a gust across the eastern Sahara to its three-time Category Five-ism, de Villiers takes on a magical journey through the atmosphere. The whole time I was reading this, I couldn't get the theme song to 'Perfect Strangers' out of my head. Also, 'The Greatest American Hero.'
A nice layperson's guide to how the atmosphere works, from the sun to the wind on your back hair (I have back hair?), how the weather works, how hurricanes, tornadoes, and all that stuff works, wind power, global warming, and so on and so forth. Lash on your windbreakers and get ready to blow this joint! You can't really work in the phrase "break-wind" enough with a book like this, can you?

[Rob · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is an impassioned, fascinating, generally well-written but rather oddly-structured book that moves a little stiffly between literary allusions and hearsay and historical/scientific discussion. There are some pretty good descriptions of weather patterns alongside some almost impenetrable ones. The focus on wind and its interconnectedness and our checkered history of understanding/explaining it is fine; the framing device of following Hurricane Ivan in bite-sized pieces before each chapter less so (although it is probably a question of execution, since I think the idea of grounding the "theory" in a memorable and recent event is sound enough).

Villiers, a South African-born writer now based in Nova Scotia, begins by detailing his own frightening experience of an irresistible wind as a child, going on to chat about some later experiences while weaving it all through the history-meets-practice narrative. Again, I like the idea of blending science, history and a bit of homespun narrative, particularly on a topic that is as multifarious as the effects and understanding of wind, but there's something about the execution that comes across as rather stilted, if occasionally well-expressed.

[Peter · Rating 3 out of 5]

This one sat on my shelf for a long time before I picked it up. An engaging read, with pretty good science in it about weather and hurricanes, in particular. Framed by the author's personal experience of Hurricane Ivan, the introductory vignette in each chapter kept the book moving along.

[Klever · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderful read a good mystery story with the hero and all.