Tying Down the Wind: Adventures in the Worst Weather on Earth

by Eric Pinder

A fascinating tour of the worst weather can do begins in a sunny New England field and travels as far afield as the Antarctic ice cap in search of tornados, thunderstorms, heat waves, blizzards, and much more. 17,500 first printing.

Genres: Science, Audiobook

280 pages, Hardcover

First published August 1, 2000

About the author

Eric Pinder lives in rural New Hampshire, where he enjoys the outdoors and sometimes shares the nearest wild blueberry patch with a foraging bear. His books for children include If All the Animals Came Inside and Cat in the Clouds. He teaches creative writing at the new Hampshire Institute of Art and earned his M.F.A. in writing for children and young adults from Vermont College of Fine Arts.

Reviews

[Ken · Rating 1 out of 5]

Generally I’m really fascinated with tales of adventure, weather, and Mt. Washington. But I really couldn’t read this book because of the overbearing prose style. Honestly, I returned it to the library after struggling through a few paragraphs.

Mr. Pinder fancies himself a poet, but what is needed here is a plainspoken storyteller. Lines like “the stars don’t speak” are not beautiful or enlightening, just annoying.

[Eric · Rating 5 out of 5]

This has been the most enjoyable listen I have been party to in several outings. If one pays attention there is much good science that has gone into telling an almost-existentialist story of the soup which is the air in which we live. This is the second time of the last couple weeks where I hear of breathing a molecule of air that also supplied a historical figure with breath; in this case the author poses one each day that Caesar respired.

The early pages shared stories that make me think I really need to put Mt. Washington on my list of places to visit. YouTube shows an interesting museum associated with the weather station, etc. After Mt. Washington Pinder goes into cloud formations and weather, generally. In the final sections he makes comparisons to Antarctica. Of course, what modern work on a weather would not have some thoughts on global warming; for Pinder the jury is still out. This was well worth my time, and you should enjoy it, as well.

[Thomas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tying down the wind is a nonfiction/autobiography kind of book that tells of Eric Pender on his weather post on top of Mount Washington. He is a meteorologist which means that he studys weather, this also means that he knows what he is talking about. Most of the adventures in this book are from his post on Mount Washington or the place where worst weathers on earth are found. This fact stays true until the end of the book where a new record is set. Eric Pender's writing is somewhat poetic, it is the kind of writing that you would only find in the best books. And this is without a doubt one of those “best books”. I enjoyed reading this spectacular whitening and hope to find many others of his work, if there are any.

[Tom Concannon · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this book for Science Book Club this month. While I do not normally mention this, I felt I had to preface this review with it because I do not think this book was a science book. It was more or less a book about observations of weather and describing “walking in treacherously windy conditions” with a few facts thrown in. The book read more like literature, with overly flowery language and too many similes on each page, than I would prefer. The last two chapters saved the book from a 1 or 2 star rating because they were more factually based writing about Antarctica, the land of extreme weather.

[MrMonoply · Rating 3 out of 5]

In the book Tying Down the Wind, a lot of information is explained. The book explains the story of Eric Pinder, a meteorologist is New Hampshire. A meteorologist is a person who studies the weather. Eric is mainly stationed on Mt. Washington, in New Hampshire. Throughout the book, Eric explains almost everything he knows about weather. He explains facts about clouds, storms, snow, the sun, the moon, the tides, and almost everything else. I thought that the book relates to my life a small bit. It reminds me of going to school and learning and learning and learning! Reading the book sometimes makes me feel like I'm back at school, learning about things going on in the world.
Personally, I didn't enjoy the book as much as I thought I would. I found the book a little bit to repetitive and boring for an action loving book reader like me. I just found that the book had to much information, and not enough story. I don't think I would recommend this book to any of my classmates, unless they were interested in the weather, or if they had very long attention spans. I would rate this book a three out of five stars for a great amount of detail, but a lack of certain qualities that I enjoy. I hope you found this review helpful!

[Lady · Rating 2 out of 5]

Weather books are either fascinating or read like overwrought fiction. This one started out well, with a charming anecdote about weather watching on a mountain in the eastern US, but by the end of the first chapter, the full page of waxing rhapsodic about a sunset had me returning the book to the library the next day. Not recommended for anyone with a low tolerance for overdone descriptive writing.

[Alexander]

Written by a New Hampshire resident who works on Mt. Washington weather observatory. The book is a collection of notes most of which are related to the weather. My impression was that often times the author writes for the sake of writing as a way to self-expression - communication of a feeling as opposed to communication of an idea or a concept.

[Esther · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating look at weather, particularly from the weather station on top of Mt Washington. This book makes me more aware of clouds. The only weak part of the book is its reliance on evolution.