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Jet Stream: A Journey Through our Changing Climate
A number of extreme weather events have struck the Northern Hemisphere in recent years, from scorching heatwaves to desperately cold winters, and from floods and storms to droughts and wildfires. These events have fuelled intense discussions in scientific conferences, government agencies, cafes, and on street corners around the world. Why are these events happening? Is this the emerging signal of climate change, and should we expect more of this? Media reports vary widely, but one mysterious agent has risen to prominence in many cases: the jet stream.
The story begins on a windswept beach in Barbados, from where we follow the ascent of a weather balloon that will travel along the jet stream all around the world. From this viewpoint we observe the effect of the jet in influencing human life around the hemisphere, and witness startling changes emerging. What is the jet stream and how well do we understand it? How does it affect our weather and is it changing? These are the main questions tackled in this book. We learn about how our view of the wind has developed from Aristotle's early theories up to today's understanding. We see that the jet is intimately connected with dramatic contrasts between climate zones and has played a key historical role in determining patterns of trade. We learn about the basic physics underlying the jet and how this knowledge is incorporated into computer models which predict both tomorrow's weather and the climate of future decades. And finally, we discuss how climate change is expected to affect the jet, and introduce the vital scientific debate over whether these changes have contributed to recent extreme weather events.
The story begins on a windswept beach in Barbados, from where we follow the ascent of a weather balloon that will travel along the jet stream all around the world. From this viewpoint we observe the effect of the jet in influencing human life around the hemisphere, and witness startling changes emerging. What is the jet stream and how well do we understand it? How does it affect our weather and is it changing? These are the main questions tackled in this book. We learn about how our view of the wind has developed from Aristotle's early theories up to today's understanding. We see that the jet is intimately connected with dramatic contrasts between climate zones and has played a key historical role in determining patterns of trade. We learn about the basic physics underlying the jet and how this knowledge is incorporated into computer models which predict both tomorrow's weather and the climate of future decades. And finally, we discuss how climate change is expected to affect the jet, and introduce the vital scientific debate over whether these changes have contributed to recent extreme weather events.
240 pages, Hardcover
Published January 1, 2020
6 people are currently reading
299 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
October 27, 2019
The importance of the jet stream - a high speed flow of air that usually carries the warm air that makes the UK warmer than it should be for its position on the Earth - is rarely fully appreciated. Recently, though, we have had a number of extreme weather events that were put down to shifts in the jet stream, emphasising its significant impact on everyday life.
Tim Woolings starts his approachable exploration of the jet stream on a beach in Barbados (all in the interest of science, of course) and takes the reader through a surprising amount of information in a relatively slim 200 pages plus notes. For the first few pages we're introduced to some of the basics of weather forecasting at this Barbados location, but then we segue from surf and sun to the winds, and up to around 10 kilometres, where aircraft tend to cruise: here we meet the jet stream, which is beginning its journey in this region.
The reader is rewarded with plenty of juicy little facts, such as the revelation that the Japanese sent balloon bombs into the jet stream during the Second World War in the hope that they would be carried to America. As it happens, they miscalculated the flow rate (it's particularly fast over Japan) and only 3 per cent reached the US, though one did hit a Sunday school picnic in Oregon, causing the only mainland US deaths during the war. Also Woolings gives us a thorough exploration of the technicalities of wind and specifically the jet stream, from Hadley cells to equatorial super-rotation. We even get a quick visit to the jet streams of Jupiter and a 'future' chapter than mostly considers the potential impact of climate change on the jet stream. There's a considerable amount of detail, but Woolings doesn't resort to mathematics and keeps the whole thing approachable.
The narrative flow is linked using two conceits - an imagined journey of a weather balloon named Grantley and short biographical snippets at the end of each chapter, about a mysterious Joseph - I suspect the snippets were supposed to give a degree of page-turning suspense, but I just found them irritating. The problem is, I think that Joseph isn't revealed to be Lagrange until the final chapter, and finding out little bits about an unknown individual's life isn't at all inspiring. I wasn't totally sure about the use of Mary Poppins as way of introducing the rarity of an east wind in London either - the vehicle seemed a little forced. I'm all in favour of narrative in a science book (and, if anything, there could have been more real life storytelling), but I'd rather it was limited to non-fiction characters. Although it is mentioned, I would have liked rather more about chaos and the chaotic nature of weather systems too.
All in all, though, a good and surprisingly enjoyable trip around a weather phenomenon.
Tim Woolings starts his approachable exploration of the jet stream on a beach in Barbados (all in the interest of science, of course) and takes the reader through a surprising amount of information in a relatively slim 200 pages plus notes. For the first few pages we're introduced to some of the basics of weather forecasting at this Barbados location, but then we segue from surf and sun to the winds, and up to around 10 kilometres, where aircraft tend to cruise: here we meet the jet stream, which is beginning its journey in this region.
The reader is rewarded with plenty of juicy little facts, such as the revelation that the Japanese sent balloon bombs into the jet stream during the Second World War in the hope that they would be carried to America. As it happens, they miscalculated the flow rate (it's particularly fast over Japan) and only 3 per cent reached the US, though one did hit a Sunday school picnic in Oregon, causing the only mainland US deaths during the war. Also Woolings gives us a thorough exploration of the technicalities of wind and specifically the jet stream, from Hadley cells to equatorial super-rotation. We even get a quick visit to the jet streams of Jupiter and a 'future' chapter than mostly considers the potential impact of climate change on the jet stream. There's a considerable amount of detail, but Woolings doesn't resort to mathematics and keeps the whole thing approachable.
The narrative flow is linked using two conceits - an imagined journey of a weather balloon named Grantley and short biographical snippets at the end of each chapter, about a mysterious Joseph - I suspect the snippets were supposed to give a degree of page-turning suspense, but I just found them irritating. The problem is, I think that Joseph isn't revealed to be Lagrange until the final chapter, and finding out little bits about an unknown individual's life isn't at all inspiring. I wasn't totally sure about the use of Mary Poppins as way of introducing the rarity of an east wind in London either - the vehicle seemed a little forced. I'm all in favour of narrative in a science book (and, if anything, there could have been more real life storytelling), but I'd rather it was limited to non-fiction characters. Although it is mentioned, I would have liked rather more about chaos and the chaotic nature of weather systems too.
All in all, though, a good and surprisingly enjoyable trip around a weather phenomenon.
June 28, 2020
Just finished this fascinating journey through our changing climate and alongside the winds of our jet stream. This book by Tim Woolings exceeded my expectations and gave me more insight into atmosphere and jet stream dynamics. Written in a simple way, easy to read for scientists or not, it offers a vast pool of information and interesting (often really cool) facts about our weather and the history of meteorology and climatology. I would really like to read so many of the books referenced here and I think I will be coming back to this one for information and easy, well-explained science. In a few words, totally recommended for atmospheric scientists, but also for anyone interested in how weather works.
unfinished
August 10, 2024A shame that the narrator of the audio version makes this entirely impossible to follow, reading as if every sentence is a headline on the 6 o clock news.
I will one day have enough time to read in real life and this book will be one of the first I get.
I will one day have enough time to read in real life and this book will be one of the first I get.
June 13, 2020
Tim Woolings is a professor of Physics at Oxford University, studying in particular physics related to the climate. If you infer from this that we are going to hear about climate change in this book, you would not be wrong, but the book is much more readable, interesting, and informative than if it were primarily aimed at browbeating the reader into caring about fossil fuels. In fact, Woolings does essentially no browbeating of the reader here, so if you're looking for a preach-to-the-choir sermon on the evils of human energy consumption and the hellish future that awaits us if we do not repent of our wicked ways, this is not your book. Woolings is here to tell us about the jet stream.
He somehow, despite being a professor of physics at a prestigious university, is able to write well. One device he uses to help us comprehend all of what he has to tell us, is to follow a hypothetical weather balloon on its path around the world. It is released from the island of Barbados in the Caribbean, and makes its way across several oceans and continents, actually doing more than 360 degrees around the planet (because when it gets back to the New World, it is considerably north of where it started). But that's not the only journey we go on, we are also time travelling.
Humans have been interested in how the winds blow Up There for a long time, and so they have been trying to figure out how to explain (and maybe even predict) what is happening for almost as long. As our weather balloon reaches each new section of the planet, there are new puzzles about how the jet stream works that somebody (or usually several generations of somebodies) had to figure out, and Woolings does a good job of telling the tale of how it happened.
There are several things that make this system complicated to understand (or write about). First, it involves both water and wind. The two impact each other, but they move in different ways, such that you can neither treat them as the same nor worry about only one of them at a time. Second, it is very much a three dimensional problem, with the extra feature that it involves a spinning system (the planet underneath). So, you have to think (or in the case of the author, write and draw) in at least three dimensions at once, and those dimensions are all in flux.
Third, it is very much a chaotic system, in the technical, mathematical sense. In fact, weather is almost the prototypical chaotic system, where immeasurably small changes can have large affects. It has patterns, but often just enough of a pattern to make you believe you know what's going on, and then it changes on you. This made it difficult for scientists who attempt to develop a mental model for it, to know when they are making progress. In some cases, the normal variation of weather (and climate) can obscure a pattern immediately after you publish your results pointing it out. Nonetheless, over the course of the centuries, and at an accelerating pace in the last 100 years, real progress has been made.
This all prepares us, very late in the book, for the question of how the jet stream will change as the climate changes. To his immense credit, Woolings is very forthright in admitting that not all models agree, and much is uncertain. But, given what is known (or suspected), he tells us what we do know. To summarize: it is very unlikely to stay the same, anyway. Given how commercially important the jet stream is, and the profound impact that it can have on how much rainfall different parts of the globe get, this will be important. The one thing you may rely on, is that the average climate where you are is likely to change, in a long-term significant way.
But, more interesting to me than the destination, is the journey to get there. Woolings is an engaging teacher, on a topic he is clearly genuinely interested in, and reading this book was a pleasure.
He somehow, despite being a professor of physics at a prestigious university, is able to write well. One device he uses to help us comprehend all of what he has to tell us, is to follow a hypothetical weather balloon on its path around the world. It is released from the island of Barbados in the Caribbean, and makes its way across several oceans and continents, actually doing more than 360 degrees around the planet (because when it gets back to the New World, it is considerably north of where it started). But that's not the only journey we go on, we are also time travelling.
Humans have been interested in how the winds blow Up There for a long time, and so they have been trying to figure out how to explain (and maybe even predict) what is happening for almost as long. As our weather balloon reaches each new section of the planet, there are new puzzles about how the jet stream works that somebody (or usually several generations of somebodies) had to figure out, and Woolings does a good job of telling the tale of how it happened.
There are several things that make this system complicated to understand (or write about). First, it involves both water and wind. The two impact each other, but they move in different ways, such that you can neither treat them as the same nor worry about only one of them at a time. Second, it is very much a three dimensional problem, with the extra feature that it involves a spinning system (the planet underneath). So, you have to think (or in the case of the author, write and draw) in at least three dimensions at once, and those dimensions are all in flux.
Third, it is very much a chaotic system, in the technical, mathematical sense. In fact, weather is almost the prototypical chaotic system, where immeasurably small changes can have large affects. It has patterns, but often just enough of a pattern to make you believe you know what's going on, and then it changes on you. This made it difficult for scientists who attempt to develop a mental model for it, to know when they are making progress. In some cases, the normal variation of weather (and climate) can obscure a pattern immediately after you publish your results pointing it out. Nonetheless, over the course of the centuries, and at an accelerating pace in the last 100 years, real progress has been made.
This all prepares us, very late in the book, for the question of how the jet stream will change as the climate changes. To his immense credit, Woolings is very forthright in admitting that not all models agree, and much is uncertain. But, given what is known (or suspected), he tells us what we do know. To summarize: it is very unlikely to stay the same, anyway. Given how commercially important the jet stream is, and the profound impact that it can have on how much rainfall different parts of the globe get, this will be important. The one thing you may rely on, is that the average climate where you are is likely to change, in a long-term significant way.
But, more interesting to me than the destination, is the journey to get there. Woolings is an engaging teacher, on a topic he is clearly genuinely interested in, and reading this book was a pleasure.
March 16, 2020
The book is for the climate/weather enthusiasts who would like to look beyond the global warming story and greenhouse effect. When Indian cricket team toured England in 2018, for the fist time in the history spin bowling was thought to play a part due to the hot conditions there. Indians used to tropical climate was afraid of getting a tan after playing England. First thing that would cross anyone's mind in this regard would be climate change or global warming. However the story is incomplete there and the book beautifully describes them. It will show you, how weather changes can fool you into accusing global warming for everything and at the same time how you can be tricked by the skeptics.
February 3, 2020
In a logical and easy to follow manner, Tim combines recent wether and climate news events, stories of important people who developed the science of the jet stream, qualitative concepts from fluid dynamics textbooks and the latest literature reviews on the jet stream into this wonderfully well written page-turner. Tim's ability to explain the jet stream without using complicated theories or jargons stems from his genuine understanding of the subject, something we should and now could all learn from.
February 1, 2020
Too often pop sci authors don’t tell us everything about the subject they are writing, in many cases, reticent about either boring or loosing us.
But Tim Woollings doesn’t hold anything back from the reader. He does a superb job describing all the complexity of the jet stream in a comprehensive and fun manner...
And with room for a story twist by the end...
But Tim Woollings doesn’t hold anything back from the reader. He does a superb job describing all the complexity of the jet stream in a comprehensive and fun manner...
And with room for a story twist by the end...
September 2, 2020
Beautifully written a great book for those interested in weather and climate, both for scientists and non-scientists. In many cases the clearest explanations I ever read of weather and climate phenomena in simple plain language.
August 30, 2025
An excellent primer to understanding our atmosphere. Woollings makes a relatively technical subject very readable and takes care to demarcate the limits of our current understanding, exhibiting his scientific credibility.
December 26, 2023
3.5 ⭐️ an interesting look at the jet stream, what impacts it, what impact it has and the many scientific experiments and equations that have supported our understanding of it.
April 8, 2025
Tough to rate this one, non-fiction books are hard to give star ratings, as it's not always that authors fault when the content is dry. I learned a lot reading this book and would recommend it to anyone interested in the topic; that being said this is a standard non-fiction reader.
September 4, 2022
Great start, but just like the Jet it looses a bit of momentum after 100 pages, took me a bit of goodwill to read the rest.
Great anecdotes all the way through though and scientifically sound.
Great anecdotes all the way through though and scientifically sound.
December 29, 2025
Read for one of my classes, and I was greatly surprised at how much I enjoyed it! Learning about the Jet Stream is honestly not one of my favorite parts of the curriculum, but the way that Woolings combined storytelling with real scientific details was very entertaining. One of my favorite details that he talked about was the atmospheric explanation for the rainy night that inspired the novels Frankenstein and Dracula. So cool!
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews