Weather Science: How Meteorology Has Gone from Folklore to High-Tech

by Brian Clegg

Everyone has an interest in the weather, whether it's to check the prospects for a day out or to know when best to harvest a crop. The Earth's weather systems also provide some of the most dramatic forces of nature, from the vast release of energy in a lightning flash to the devastating impact of tornadoes and hurricanes.

For centuries, our only real guide to future weather was folklore, but with the introduction of the first weather forecasts and maps in Victorian times, attempts were made to give some warning of the weather to come. Until relatively recently, these forecasts could be wildly inaccurate - think of Michael Fish's denial that there was a storm on the way the night before the UK's great storm of 1987. This was due to the mathematically chaotic nature of weather systems, first discovered in the 1960s, the understanding of which would transform forecasting from the 1990s and mean that meteorologists became some of the foremost users of supercomputers.

From the crystalline perfection of the snowflake to the transfer of energy from the Sun, science lies at the heart of the weather and our understanding of it. In recent years, weather science has moved to the leading edge with advanced modelling, versatile use of satellite data and a better understanding of mathematical chaos. This is a true example of hot science at work.

Genres: Audiobook, Nonfiction, Science

176 pages, Kindle Edition

Published July 18, 2024

About the author

Brian's latest books, Ten Billion Tomorrows and How Many Moons does the Earth Have are now available to pre-order. He has written a range of other science titles, including the bestselling Inflight Science, The God Effect, Before the Big Bang, A Brief History of Infinity, Build Your Own Time Machine and Dice World.

Along with appearances at the Royal Institution in London he has spoken at venues from Oxford and Cambridge Universities to Cheltenham Festival of Science, has contributed to radio and TV programmes, and is a popular speaker at schools. Brian is also editor of the successful www.popularscience.co.uk book review site and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.

Brian has Masters degrees from Cambridge University in Natural Sciences and from Lancaster University in Operational Research, a discipline originally developed during the Second World War to apply the power of mathematics to warfare. It has since been widely applied to problem solving and decision making in business.

Brian has also written regular columns, features and reviews for numerous publications, including Nature, The Guardian, PC Week, Computer Weekly, Personal Computer World, The Observer, Innovative Leader, Professional Manager, BBC History, Good Housekeeping and House Beautiful. His books have been translated into many languages, including German, Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese, Japanese, Polish, Turkish, Norwegian, Thai and even Indonesian.

Reviews

[Arndis · Rating 5 out of 5]

mjög áhugaverð, góð blanda af vísindum og sögum, skemmtileg uppsetning. lærði helling.

[Jen A · Rating 2 out of 5]

Although I walked away from this book with some new fun facts on weather systems and folklore, this book seemed to try to take on too much given its length. It made it feel like it lacked cohesion. I felt like it was trying to be a book on the history of meteorology, provide an overview of different weather systems and delve into complicated climate science without having enough space to truly develop a clear case on the importance and nuances of any of these topics.

I was disappointed by the way this book also dealt with Hurricane Katrina. This book describes New Orleans’ vulnerable position and the catastrophic conditions caused by Katrina without mentioning the underlying engineering failures the causes the levees to break in New Orleans. This presents an incomplete picture of what actually caused the extreme destruction in New Orleans. The wording around the storm also feels misleading as it emphasizing the hurricane wind speeds increasing to Cat 5 with a slight slow down ahead of landfall but not mentioning that Katrina only sideswiped New Orleans. Douglas Brinkley’s book The Great Deluge provides a deeper dive on Katrina and I was happy to see it mentioned in the suggested readings in the back of this book.

The climate science section could have also benefited from a deeper dive. In particular the section on sea level rise was a bit hard to follow.

Would maybe recommend to someone who has no prior knowledge of weather or climate science as a starting point on these topics. It could be a good launching pad to learning what you want to know more about and then seek out more in-depth books on said topics.

[Roger Harlington · Rating 4 out of 5]

A brief and gentle introductions to many topics in meteorology. Not too in depth but just what I was looking for. Full of interesting facts. I like that he goes on historical tangents but never stays too far from the topic at hand.

[Daniel Jidkov · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing deep dive into weather history both within the UK and also globally makes for a great read to understand why we, as British people, have an obsession with weather. Nice and sciency!

[Dylan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good at simplifying a few concepts I had struggled with. Too short for any deep insights.

[ZzZ · Rating 1 out of 5]

This dude is so obviously a government stooge… his books serve as cover-ups for the bull-garbage we are dealt with by the higher-ups 😝😎

[J · Rating 5 out of 5]

I wish it were three times as long.