Weather
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
THE COMPLETE IDIOT\\u0027S REFERENCE CARD
CONTENTS AT A GLANCE
CONTENTS
FOREWORD.
INTRODUCTION
What You\\u0027ll Learn in This Book
Acknowledgments
Special Thanks to the Technical Reviewer.
Trademarks
PART 1 WHAT IS THIS THING CALLED WEATHER?
Chapter 1 What Should I Wear?
Your 50-Year Forecast
How Did He Do That?
Playing the Odds
Getting Down to Basics
Red Skies at Night
Blue Skies, Too.
Know Which Way the Wind Blows.
Halos and Rings
Storm Signals
Forecasting from the Beginning
Going for the Gold
Chapter 2 Partly to Mostly Cloudy
Moisture and Humidity.
A Sense of Humid
Is It the Heat or the Humidity?
In the Clouds
Cloud Formation.
Cloud Classification
Ten Major Cloud Types
High Clouds.
Middle Clouds
Low Clouds
Foggy Notions
Clouds with Vertical Development
Forecasting by Clouds
Chapter 3 Bring On the Rain
Droplet to Drop…How Rain Happens..
Let\\u0027s See What Sticks
Ice to the Rescue
Is There Enough Ice?
Types of Precipitation
Snow
Sleet and Hail
Freezing Rain.
Fooling the Clouds
Age of Experimentation
Raining on Our Parade.
So Why Does It Rain?
Those Ups and Downs
Chapter 4 Going in Circles
Storms ‘R’ Us.
Feeling the Pressure
Origin of Pressure
Normal Variation
High Points and Low
What Makes the Weather Go \\u0027Round
What\\u0027s in a Name?
Scales of Motion.
Is It Getting Worse? The Naughty \\u002790s
Chapter 5 There\\u0027s No Place Like Home
Thunderstorms
Stability and Instability
Lapse Rates
Lightning Strikes
Avoid the Ash.
Doing the Twist
The Chase.
Staying Safe in a Storm
Chapter 6 On Another Front
Mass Appeal
Birth of an Air Mass
Going Hot and Cold.
Feeling the Chill
Too Cold for Comfort
By the Sea
Putting On the Heat
How Dry It Is.
Putting Up a Front
Front Row.
Frontal Attack
There\\u0027s a Storm a-Brewin\\u0027
It Looks Like Rain
Stalled in Its Tracks
Storms on the Front
Formation and Life Cycle
Of Nor\\u0027easters and Sou\\u0027westers.
Telling What\\u0027s Next.
Chapter 7 Hurricanes: The Greatest Storms on Earth
It\\u0027s Different in the Tropics
How It Happens
The Name Game
Hurricane Forecasting
The Triple Threat.
Another Big One Coming?
Taming the Tiger
Chapter 8 Blowing Cold and Hot: The Big Ones
Winter Gone South.
Big-City Snows
Storm of the Century?
The Greatest One of All.
Modern Winter of Deep Snows
Galveston Storm Surge
The Great New England Hurricane
The Fabulous \\u002750s and Super \\u002760s
Camille
Of Agnes, Gloria, and Hugo
The Amazing Andrew..
Chapter 9 El Ni?o: The Grown-Up Child
New Kid on the Block?
The Connection Between the Sea and the Atmosphere
Here Comes the Kid
Child\\u0027s Play
Global Weather Extremes
The Wet Coast.
South America
Western Pacific
June in January.
Southern Floods and Tornadoes
Atlantic Hurricane Season
La Ni?a: The Kid\\u0027s Sister
Girl Power.
Fire and Ice
What\\u0027s Next?
PART 2 THE WEATHER AND US
Chapter 10 Warning: The Weather Can Be Hazardous to Your Health
Weather and Health
My Aching Back.
If You Can\\u0027t Stand the Heat….
Catching the Common Cold
Those Nasty Allergies
SAD and Other Moods
Chapter 11 Air Pollution
The Main Players
Here\\u0027s the Dirt
Pollution Emissions.
It\\u0027s a Gas
A Silent Killer.
Out of the Blue
VOCs
Photochemical Smog
Chapter 12 Control of Pollution
Politics of Control.
It\\u0027s a Nuisance
The Regulations
How Are We Doing?
Engineering Techniques
Change of Fuels.
Getting the Dirt Out
Degassing.
The Infernal Combustion Engine
Weathering the Pollution
Horizontal Dispersal
Vertical Mixing
Those Dirty Highs
Economics of Control—Can We Afford It?
Chapter 13 Ozone—The Good and the Bad.
Old Sol.
Atomic-Powered Fireball
Crazy with the Heat
Atmospheric Structure
The Good Ozone
Ozone Hole—Here Today, Gone Tomorrow?
Changes in Ozone.
PART 3 CLIMATE AND GLOBAL CHANGE
Chapter 14 Well-Seasoned
The Earth in Motion
The Seasons.
Sun Matters
Scattering, Reflection, and Absorption
Radiation Budget.
Balancing the Global Heat Budget
Local Heat Budgets
Ocean and Land Heating
Monsoons
Ups and Downs
Chapter 15 Staying in Circulation
What Do We See—On the Average?
The Doldrums
The Horse Latitudes
Polar Front
What Sets Up the Global Pattern?
Unicell
Tri-Cell
Bi-Cell
Ocean Circulations.
Chapter 16 Climatology
Guess This Climate.
Now Try to Guess This Climate, Too
Zone 1
Zone 2
Zone 3
Zone 4
Can You Name Continent X?
Climate Classification
Tropical Moist Climates (A)
Dry Climates (B)
Mid-Latitude, Moist Subtropical Climates (C).
Moist Continental Climates (D)
Polar Climates (E)
Mapping It All Out
Going to Extremes
Chapter 17 Are You Planning to Move?
Ideal Climate
Economics of Relocation
A Dew-Point Reminder
Bring on the Chill
Climates of Selected Areas.
Houston, Texas
Atlanta, Georgia
Phoenix, Arizona
Denver, Colorado
Orlando, Florida.
Salt Lake City, Utah
Las Vegas, Nevada
Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina
Fresno, California
Cincinnati, Ohio.
Chapter 18 Climates Are Made to Be Broken
Aging with a Glow
The Atomic Clock Is Ticking
Carbon Dating
Uranium Dating.
It\\u0027s a Very Old Earth
Evidence of Climate Change
The Last Two Million Years
The Last 500,000 Years
Climate of the Last 3,000 Years.
The Climate of the Twentieth Century
Chapter 19 Making the Change Happen
What\\u0027s the Problem with Understanding Climate Change?
Plate Tectonics: Get My Drift?
Changes in Earth\\u0027s Orbit.
Eccentricity of Earth\\u0027s Orbit
The Wobbling Earth
The Tilted Earth
Changes in Solar Output
Volcanism.
Carbon Dioxide and the Greenhouse Effect
Chapter 20 The Greenhouse Wars
The Players
Have We Really Warmed?
So, Where Are We Going?
What If We Really Do Warm Up?
The Negatives of Greenhouse Warming
But There Are Positives
So What Should We Do?
PART 4 NOW FOR THE REAL FORECAST.
Chapter 21 Measuring the Atmosphere
The Take on Temperature
Is the Pressure Getting to You?
The Wind in the Willows
It\\u0027s Not the Heat, It\\u0027s the Humidity.
Measuring the Rain
Placing the Instruments
Upper Air Observations
Putting the Data Together
Chapter 22 Radar and Satellites.
Radar—Scanning the Skies
Doppler—The New Generation
Satellites—A Far-Out Look
The Modern Era
Putting It All Together.
So, Are the Forecasts Going to Be Better?
Chapter 23 Let\\u0027s See How It\\u0027s Done
Sunday Night—The Night Before the Forecast
Early Monday Morning—Getting In to Work
Now for the Real Work.
Checking Out the Data
Looking at the Surface Maps
Going Into the Upper Air
Bring on the Machines
What About the Five-Day Forecast?
Are We Ready?
Chapter 24 Prediction by Numbers
Richardson\\u0027s Experiment
Want to Try the Math?
Newton\\u0027s Law.
Ideal Gas Law
Thermodynamics
The Dilemma
The Computer Age
A Brief History of the Computer.
Putting the Machines to Work
Too Much of a Good Thing
The Machines Are Getting Better
Chapter 25 Making a Career Out of It
Opening the Mail.
What Would I Do?
Forecasting
Broadcasting
Consulting
Air Quality.
Computer Programming
Research and Development
Teaching
Forensics
Other Areas of Specialization.
How Much Will I Earn?
How Do I Become a Meteorologist?
Will I Find a Job?
APPENDIX A WEATHER-SPEAK GLOSSARY
A.
B
C
D
E
F.
G
H
I
J
K.
L
M
N
O
P.
R
S
T
U
W.
APPENDIX B EARTH AND CLIMATE HISTORY
APPENDIX C WEATHER MAPS
Surface Weather Maps
Upper Air Charts
APPENDIX D COMPUTER FORECASTING.
INDEX
Symbols
A
B
C.
D
E
F
G
H.
I
J
K
L
M.
N
O
P
R
S.
T
U
V
W
Y–Z.
DEAR READER