The Handy Weather Answer Book

The Handy Answer Book

by Walter A. Lyons

Well written at a level that is enjoyable to everyone. I highly recommend this book to any lay reader, weather watcher or atmospheric professional. – The Weather Doctor. Everyone has something to say about the weather. Former NASA researcher and professional meteorologist Dr. Walter A. Lyons and his Handy Weather Answer Book® just have more to say than most. As one reader nearly exclaimed, Weather has never been more exciting. Where else can you find the answer to the existential question: Do mobile homes attract tornadoes? Find the answer in the chapter aptly named, Tornadoes, 25 pages on hot and bothered air. From cloud formations to rainbow development, Handy Weather takes on the controversial climate issues of the day and provides the weather aficionado as well as the more casual enthusiast with a cornucopia of weather facts and trivia, a good thing given the title and intent. More than 1,000 questions are expertly and clearly answered by Dr. Walt as he covers the greenhouse effect and global warming, smog and acid rain, earthquakes and volcanoes, thunder and lightning, forecasting and careers in meteorology, thunderstorms and winter blasts, weather's effect on the human body, droughts and flash floods, hurricanes and tropical storms, and much, much more, plus fascinating weather-related phenomena like El Niño, Aurora Borealis, and St. Elmo's Fire. A great book for a rainy day.

Genres: Science, Reference, Nonfiction

432 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 1996

Reviews

[Anna · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love meteorology, but at the beginning, I didn't know much about it. This book helped me understand weather and why it happens, and know I've probably got hundreds of facts about weather! Walter A. Lyons did a fantastic job, and now there's one more person in the world who is fascinated by meteorology.

[Camille · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was arranged question and answer style. It made a nice introduction to meteorology, but I soon grew tired of the format. Many of the questions just weren't things that I really wanted to know. I'll look for another weather book written text book style.

That said, it was full of fun little bits of weather history that I knew nothing about. Raining frogs...and giant hailstones...etc.

[K L R · Rating 1 out of 5]

Way too many lists of dates and statistics that I'm never going to remember. I ended up skimming half of the book. It doesn't help that it's 30 years out of date (my library's selection of books on meteorology was limited). I also don't like the Q&A format. A more systematic explanation of weather phenomena would be great.