Extreme Weather

by Burt, Christopher C.; Stroud, Mark

• ISBN13: 9780393326581
• ISBN10: 0393326586
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2004-10-30
• Publisher: W W Norton & Co Inc

Summary

There are few thrills as exciting as weather at its worst. We often hear on the news that the day was the hottest, coldest, wettest, or snowiest on record. Is the climate really becoming more extreme as a result of global warming? The facts are in this book.Extensively illustrated with color photographs of some of the most extreme weather ever captured on camera, more than fifty color maps, and tables of weather records for over three hundred U.S. cities, this book is both an entertainment and an indispensable reference.Also included are historical examples of some of the more bizarre weather events observed: heat bursts, electrified dust storms, snow rollers, pink snowstorms, luminous tornadoes, falls of fish and toads, ball lightning, super bolts, and other strange meteorological events. Here's the must-have book for Weather Channel and Guinness Book of World Records fans.

Author Biography

Christopher C. Burt studied meteorology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He now resides in Oakland, California, a city of unremitting weather dullness

Table of Contents

Introduction	p. 11
Heat & Drought	p. 14
Hottest Cities & Hot Spots	p. 15
In the United States	p. 15
Around the World	p. 24
Death Valley: Hottest Place in the World?	p. 18
Real Heat: The Humidity Factor	p. 27
Historic Heat Waves in the United States	p. 29
Heat Bursts	p. 36
Droughts & Dust Storms	p. 38
Remarkable High Plains Dust Storms	p. 41
Global Warming	p. 42
Weather Service Forecasts End of the World	p. 43
Cold	p. 44
Coldest Cities & Cold Spots	p. 45
In the United States	p. 45
Around the World	p. 56
Makeshift Alaskan Thermometers	p. 50
Coldest Place in the Lower	p. 48
Embarrass, Minnesota	p. 51
What's it Like at -80[degree]?	p. 59
Historic Cold Waves in the United States	p. 60
January 10, 1859: New York City's Coldest Daylight Ever	p. 61
Temperature Antics in the Black Hills and High Plains	p. 68
Snow & Ice	p. 70
Snowiest Cities in The United States	p. 71
Snowy Places	p. 73
In the United States	p. 73
Around the World	p. 86
Snow in the Sierra Nevada	p. 79
Snow in New England	p. 82
Historic Snowstorms in the United States	p. 90
A Luminous Snowstorm in New England	p. 91
Strange Snowfalls	p. 98
Ice Storms	p. 96
Rain & Floods	p. 102
Rainiest & Driest Cities & Places	p. 103
In the United States	p. 103
Around the World	p. 112
It Rains Sometimes in Seattle	p. 105
Extreme Rainstorms	p. 116
Phenomenal Cloudbursts: Colorado, Texas, Pennsylvania	p. 118
Greatest Rainstorms in the World: Reunion Island	p. 120
Floods	p. 123
Mud Showers Over New York	p. 133
Thunderstorms & Hail	p. 134
Stormiest Places	p. 135
In the United States	p. 139
Around the World	p. 146
Extreme Sport: Parachuting Into a Thunderstorm	p. 143
Lighting	p. 147
Superbolts	p. 149
Apocryphal Lightning Pranks	p. 152
Remarkable Storm of Ball Lightning in Mount Desert, Maine	p. 155
Hailstorms	p. 157
In the United States	p. 157
Around the World	p. 161
Tornadoes	p. 164
Typical Tornadoes	p. 165
In the United States	p. 171
Around the World	p. 183
Eyewitness to the Center of a Tornado	p. 170
Historic Twisters	p. 194
Luminous Tornadoes	p. 192
Waterspouts	p. 196
Animal Falls	p. 199
Hurricanes	p. 200
Hurricanes and Their Intensity	p. 201
In the United States	p. 204
Historic Hurricanes	p. 209
Dedicated Weather Observer	p. 215
Hurricane Flooding: The Storm Surge & Rainfalls	p. 217
Tropical Storms Around the World	p. 221
Greatest Storm on Earth	p. 224
Tropical Storm Superlatives	p. 227
Windstorms & Fog	p. 232
Extra-tropical storms	p. 233
The Perfect Storm	p. 243
Great Cyclones of Europe	p. 246
Extreme Winds	p. 248
Highest Measured Wind Speed in the World	p. 249
Extreme Santa Ana	p. 254
Fog	p. 257
El Nino and La Nina	p. 260
Appendices	p. 264
Maps, Records & Conversion Tables
Bibliography	p. 293
Index	p. 299
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved.