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Created by veteran BBC producer, editor and writer John Lynch, The Weather explains the science of weather clearly and accessibly, illustrated throughout with color photographs and graphics from The Learning Channel/BBC television series. The Weather begins with the basic questions: What is the weather, and what drives it? The book then goes on to cover every global weather phenomenon, with an in-depth introduction and sections on Wind, Wet, Cold and Hot. The book is especially revealing on how humans interact with weather - how we've adapted to it, suffered from it, harnessed it, and, finally, how we may be inadvertently changing it. The final section, Change, is a look at the meaning of global climate change patterns.
About the author:
John Lynch is the Creative Director, Science for BBC Television and is responsible for all documentary science series for the BBC. He was executive producer of The Planets and Walking with Dinosaurs and the award-winning Fermat's Last Theorem.
Seeds of Weather
Sit on a hillside overlooking the sea on a warm summer's day, relax in the golden heat of the afternoon, pluck the head from a dandelion and blow away the seeds-watch them scatter in the wind and you will have become part of the weather. As the tiny seeds fly through the air at your behest, the microturbulence you have created will meet updrafts of warm air from the field and little eddies of wind will spiral upwards into the sky above. More air will be drawn into the void left behind by the rising air, creating a gentle wind that plays on your face, the beginnings of a shore breeze. Meanwhile, far above you, some of the tiny particles of pollen from the seeds will continue to ascend, reaching so high into the air that they find themselves in a region of icy cold. Here they may form a "seed" of another kind -- the heart of an ice crystal -- as even tinier molecules of water cluster around them and hold fast. In turn these microscopic structures of ice will play in the up- and downdrafts in the weird world at the top of what is now a spreading thundercloud, growing to become pellets of hail or falling and inexorably melting out as rain that eventually drenches the grass around you. Instead, as the cloud spreads out in the familiar anvil shape of a summer storm, some of the crystals and their passengers of pollen may be carried far across the globe by the superfast winds of the jet stream, eventually perhaps sprinkling down as snow on the cap of a distant mountain and there melting, to become torrent that cuts its way down a river gorge, across a parched flood-plain and out towards the sea. And the water that then flows from this estuary on the far side of the world may in turn undergo an epic journey through the depths of the ocean, to return perhaps five hundred or a thousand years later to the very spot where you are sitting. It may drift in once again as a cloud, to rain on the ground and to be drawn up by the roots of the ten-thousandth generation of the dandelion plant that you held in your hands. For the weather is something that is in us and all around us, a huge interconnected force of chaos: a force of creation and destruction, a thin veil that shrouds our planet and allows us to live and thrive.
Foreword
Chapter One: Weatherworld
What is the weather, and what drives it? A powerful force of creation and destruction, the weather affects all life on Earth in intimate and chaotic ways.
- seeds of weather - wind, wet, hot and cold - weather machine - clouds - Types of Cloud - exploring the sky - spin of the earth - Coriolis Effect- red sky at night - satellites in space - Rainbow - the big picture
Chapter Two: Wind
Without wind the Earth would be a cauldron of extremes. The wind ceaselessly travels the globe, bringing warmth and cold in equal measure. But it also brings devastation with tornadoes and typhoons.
- deadly calm - the doldrums - the cycle of the winds - Global Cells - birth of typhoon - us naval disaster story - Typhoon/Hurricane Science - jet streams - japanese bombs - missing - ill wind - biometerology - tornado alley - inside a tornado - Tornado Warning - north atlantic winds - solar winds - journey's end
Chapter Three: Wet
The Earth is a water planet; water surrounds us in the sea, but also in the sky. It is the fuel of our weather, and lies at the heart of storms, monsoons and floods.
- wet but beautiful - water world - Water Power - raindrops - Thunderstorm - monsoon - the southern oscillation - the christ child - the great ocean journey - flood in the gulf - water not wind - the gulf stream - warm weather - the wild atlantic - father of meteorology - Storms Over Norway - atlantic surge - wettest place in europe
Chapter Four: Cold
Cold is one of the deadliest enemies of humankind. Behind the delicate beauty of snowflakes lie the dangers of frost, snow, blizzards, smog and avalanches.
- a cold planet - Summer and Winter - greenland ice - adapting to ice - the source - weather war - survival and wonder on ice - snowflakes - seeds of snow - Snowflake Stars - the lost squadron - polar surge - the world's worst weather station - superstorm of '93, new york - smog - Cold Health - avalanche - meltdown
Chapter Five: Hot
The heat from the sun is the energy that generates our weather. Its power can surprise and terrify us -- creating hurricanes, sandstorms, thunder and lightning.
design for the desert - why deserts exist - rivers in the sky - a desert world - The Hidden Past, Sahara - killer desert - desert survival - making a desert - Secrets of the Dunes - mirage - desert storms - haboob - thunder and lightning - Lightning Strikes - fossil lightning - summertime hell - heat island - cautionary tale
Chapter Six: Change
For centuries we have tried to control the weather, but now it is really changing; the climate is getting warmer and the weather is getting wilder. So what does the future hold?
- meddling with nature - taming the weather - stormfury - military weather - weather politics - Hail Suppression - thinking big - stopping the conveyor - a cooler, warmer world - Ice Cores - The Little Ice Age - the story of global warming - Global Warming - future weather
Sit on a hillside overlooking the sea on a warm summer's day, relax in the golden heat of the afternoon, pluck the head from a dandelion and blow away the seeds-watch them scatter in the wind and you will have become part of the weather. As the tiny seeds fly through the air at your behest, the microturbulence you have created will meet updrafts of warm air from the field and little eddies of wind will spiral upwards into the sky above. More air will be drawn into the void left behind by the rising air, creating a gentle wind that plays on your face, the beginnings of a shore breeze. Meanwhile, far above you, some of the tiny particles of pollen from the seeds will continue to ascend, reaching so high into the air that they find themselves in a region of icy cold. Here they may form a "seed" of another kind -- the heart of an ice crystal -- as even tinier molecules of water cluster around them and hold fast. In turn these microscopic structures of ice will play in the up- and downdrafts in the weird world at the top of what is now a spreading thundercloud, growing to become pellets of hail or falling and inexorably melting out as rain that eventually drenches the grass around you. Instead, as the cloud spreads out in the familiar anvil shape of a summer storm, some of the crystals and their passengers of pollen may be carried far across the globe by the superfast winds of the jet stream, eventually perhaps sprinkling down as snow on the cap of a distant mountain and there melting, to become torrent that cuts its way down a river gorge, across a parched flood-plain and out towards the sea. And the water that then flows from this estuary on the far side of the world may in turn undergo an epic journey through the depths of the ocean, to return perhaps five hundred or a thousand years later to the very spot where you are sitting. It may drift in once again as a cloud, to rain on the ground and to be drawn up by the roots of the ten-thousandth generation of the dandelion plant that you held in your hands. For the weather is something that is in us and all around us, a huge interconnected force of chaos: a force of creation and destruction, a thin veil that shrouds our planet and allows us to live and thrive.
Sit on a hillside overlooking the sea on a warm summer's day, relax in the golden heat of the afternoon, pluck the head from a dandelion and blow away the seeds-watch them scatter in the wind and you will have become part of the weather. As the tiny seeds fly through the air at your behest, the microturbulence you have created will meet updrafts of warm air from the field and little eddies of wind will spiral upwards into the sky above. More air will be drawn into the void left behind by the rising air, creating a gentle wind that plays on your face, the beginnings of a shore breeze. Meanwhile, far above you, some of the tiny particles of pollen from the seeds will continue to ascend, reaching so high into the air that they find themselves in a region of icy cold. Here they may form a "seed" of another kind -- the heart of an ice crystal -- as even tinier molecules of water cluster around them and hold fast. In turn these microscopic structures of ice will play in the up- and downdrafts in the weird world at the top of what is now a spreading thundercloud, growing to become pellets of hail or falling and inexorably melting out as rain that eventually drenches the grass around you. Instead, as the cloud spreads out in the familiar anvil shape of a summer storm, some of the crystals and their passengers of pollen may be carried far across the globe by the superfast winds of the jet stream, eventually perhaps sprinkling down as snow on the cap of a distant mountain and there melting, to become torrent that cuts its way down a river gorge, across a parched flood-plain and out towards the sea. And the water that then flows from this estuary on thefar side of the world may in turn undergo an epic journey through the depths of the ocean, to return perhaps five hundred or a thousand years later to the very spot where you are sitting. It may drift in once again as a cloud, to rain on the ground and to be drawn up by the roots of the ten-thousandth generation of the dandelion plant that you held in your hands. For the weather is something that is in us and all around us, a huge interconnected force of chaos: a force of creation and destruction, a thin veil that shrouds our planet and allows us to live and thrive.
Overview