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Inside the Hurricane: Face to Face with Nature's Deadliest Storms
A fast-paced, dramatic exploration of one of the most powerful and destructive forces in nature
Pete Davies has flown into the eyes of hurricanes with daredevil aviators. He's met with wild-eyed meteorologists who are obsessed with finding out exactly why hurricanes occur and how to predict their onslaughts more accurately. And he's joined heroic aid teams as they've coped with the physical and emotional devastation left in the wake of these awesome storms.
In Inside the Hurricane , Davies sweeps readers from the Caribbean to the Bay of Bengal, describing both the horrifying violence and the eerie beauty of hurricanes. He explains the weather conditions that foster them; discusses in lucid detail how scientists predict, measure, and track them; and delves into mysteries scientists are still trying to solve. Gripping accounts of the greatest hurricanes in history climax with Davies's own firsthand experiences flying into the worst storms of 1999.
A masterful combination of history, science, and adventure, Inside the Hurricane leaves readers with a chilling reminder of nature's enduring domination over scientists predict that the hurricanes of tomorrow will make today's Category 5 storms look small.
Pete Davies has flown into the eyes of hurricanes with daredevil aviators. He's met with wild-eyed meteorologists who are obsessed with finding out exactly why hurricanes occur and how to predict their onslaughts more accurately. And he's joined heroic aid teams as they've coped with the physical and emotional devastation left in the wake of these awesome storms.
In Inside the Hurricane , Davies sweeps readers from the Caribbean to the Bay of Bengal, describing both the horrifying violence and the eerie beauty of hurricanes. He explains the weather conditions that foster them; discusses in lucid detail how scientists predict, measure, and track them; and delves into mysteries scientists are still trying to solve. Gripping accounts of the greatest hurricanes in history climax with Davies's own firsthand experiences flying into the worst storms of 1999.
A masterful combination of history, science, and adventure, Inside the Hurricane leaves readers with a chilling reminder of nature's enduring domination over scientists predict that the hurricanes of tomorrow will make today's Category 5 storms look small.
Hardcover
First published September 2, 2000
2 people are currently reading
11 people want to read
About the author
Pete Davies
19 books2 followersPete Davies is best known as the author of All Played Out, the classic account of the Italian World Cup in 1990 that's been continuously in print ever since it hit the bestseller list. He's also the author of three novels, and eight other works of non-fiction.
Davies has written about sport and politics, history and science, travel and weather. He's flown in hurricanes over the Gulf of Mexico and off the Carolinas, chased tornadoes on the Great Plains, and followed stories around the world from Central America to East Africa, from India to Japan, from Hong Kong to the high Arctic.
Davies was born in 1959 and lives in West Yorkshire, England. He was prolifically productive in the 1990's, but after American Road came out in 2002, he disappeared from view. In deteriorating health, he was told in 2006 that he had two years left to live.
Davies defied that diagnosis, and in 2017 - after fifteen years of silence - he published his novel Playlist. A wildly inventive comedy, Playlist marks a stunning and unexpected return to print for one of the most original voices of his generation.
Davies has written about sport and politics, history and science, travel and weather. He's flown in hurricanes over the Gulf of Mexico and off the Carolinas, chased tornadoes on the Great Plains, and followed stories around the world from Central America to East Africa, from India to Japan, from Hong Kong to the high Arctic.
Davies was born in 1959 and lives in West Yorkshire, England. He was prolifically productive in the 1990's, but after American Road came out in 2002, he disappeared from view. In deteriorating health, he was told in 2006 that he had two years left to live.
Davies defied that diagnosis, and in 2017 - after fifteen years of silence - he published his novel Playlist. A wildly inventive comedy, Playlist marks a stunning and unexpected return to print for one of the most original voices of his generation.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
December 31, 2012
Maybe 3 and a quarter stars or 3 & a half stars. Very good in places but kind of dry in others.
April 21, 2019
Pete Davies tells the story of what research was going on with hurricanes in the late 90s and what systems were in place to track and forecast storms. Partially, he tells stories of what it's like in an airplane flying through and measuring these crazy storms. Partially, he tells stories of what goes on in the ground in preparation and during a hurricane. Sometimes, it's stories of the money woes that keep these agencies from collecting better information that leads to better predictions.
I will admit that unless you are pretty into hurricanes or science, this book was a little dry. I found it really fascinating though. I can't imagine flying an airplane through a storm like that - but it would be so cool to witness the incredible power of nature that way.
The other really interesting thing for me is I clearly remember Hurricane Floyd. My family lived in South Carolina only a couple years after that went through and I remember hearing about some of the terrible devastation from that storm. I was pretty young but still interesting to recognize that when they started describing the storm.
I'll go 7 of 10 for enjoyment and 3 of 5 for readability. It never gets overly technical - without any specialized knowledge myself, I was easily able to follow what was going on. I'd love to find another book about what has changed in storm tracking in the past twenty years!
For more reviews, check out bedroopedbookworms.wordpress.com!
I will admit that unless you are pretty into hurricanes or science, this book was a little dry. I found it really fascinating though. I can't imagine flying an airplane through a storm like that - but it would be so cool to witness the incredible power of nature that way.
The other really interesting thing for me is I clearly remember Hurricane Floyd. My family lived in South Carolina only a couple years after that went through and I remember hearing about some of the terrible devastation from that storm. I was pretty young but still interesting to recognize that when they started describing the storm.
I'll go 7 of 10 for enjoyment and 3 of 5 for readability. It never gets overly technical - without any specialized knowledge myself, I was easily able to follow what was going on. I'd love to find another book about what has changed in storm tracking in the past twenty years!
For more reviews, check out bedroopedbookworms.wordpress.com!
January 13, 2022
A journalist’s account of various hurricanes that hit Central America and the southeast US. Tried to include a lot of NOAA weather jargon. Some of the quotes attributed to staff while flying in storm chasing aircraft was hard to place without context.
January 1, 2012
The author spent time with hurricane researchers at the national Hurricane Center in Miami. He was there during the approach of Hurricane Floyd and chronicled some of the decisions that the forecasters had to make, and the dilemmas they faced. He also made a couple of flights on one of their planes into the eye.He also described the damage that Hurricane Mitch did to Honduras. What a disaster!The book is well written and entertaining, but a little too simplistic and sensationalistic to be great. It could have used more scientific information about the formation and genesis of hurricanes.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews