The Weather Handbook: The Essential Guide to How Weather Is Formed and Develops

by Alan Watts

The fourth edition of this bestselling book explains how to combine professional weather forecasts with information from self-assessment of the signs in the sky, as well as from websites and apps, to arrive at a local forecast of coming weather.

The Weather Handbook is the essential guide to how the weather is formed, providing readers with the ability to look at the sky and interpret its signs. This handbook has been the standard reference for over 20 years for skippers and crews of cruising and racing yachts. The fourth edition has been updated and expanded with new photos and explanatory text, addressing new sources of weather information. There are countless websites and apps providing forecast data, and The Weather Handbook guides users in how to use and interpret this information for themselves, taking a general forecast for a wide area to provide a local forecast for a specific location.

"The perfect introduction to understanding weather" - Practical Boat Owner

Genres: Nonfiction, Science, Nature, Reference

160 pages, Paperback

First published August 1, 1994

Reviews

[Lindsey · Rating 1 out of 5]

I took a Meteorology course in college and it has been about 10 years, so I've lost some of the basics. So I want my "essential" weather guide to tell me about the basics. This book starts off decently with clouds, although some things were missing right off. My problem really begins on page 30, when the author never describes cyclonic and anticyclonic anywhere (I have a basic understanding of them still but come on), and throws isobars at you, without ever telling you ANYTHING about isobars, or much of anything about troughs or ridges. Nothing is really explained, so when the author begins talking about isobars bending, nothing really makes any sense, there are no pieces to put together. Perhaps I should just pull out my textbook from long ago to re-learn everything.

[Bill Buckley · Rating 3 out of 5]

A lot of technical data but really interesting. Weather forecasting is a combination of computers, satellites and human effort.

[Maggie Gallagher · Rating 3 out of 5]

A little more technical than I wanted, but still cool. Beautiful pictures, too.

[Les · Rating 2 out of 5]

I enjoyed the book, but it was technical and I would have to read it through several more times to get it to sink in.