Skies of Fury: Weather Weirdness Around the World

by Patricia Barnes-Svarney, Thomas E Svarney

The skies aren't friendly anymore!
Sweltering heat waves. Bone-chilling blizzards. Ferocious winds. Mighty peculiar weather we've been having, isn't it? Well, scientists predict that climate trends are only going to get stranger in the future. And in Skies of Fury, top science writers Patricia Barnes-Svarney and Thomas E. Svarney take you around the world, bringing you face-to-face with the eye of the storm, explaining the full range of weird weather affecting us. Discover the reasons behind:
* downdrafts, heat bursts, derechoes, and tornadoes
* monsoons, tropical storms, hurricanes, and rogue waves
* sandstorms, dust devils, wildfires, and polar ice deserts
* light pillars, diamond dust, and sun dogs
* mirages, UFOs, and green flashes
* torrential rainfall, ball lightning, and super showstorms
* flash flooding, hall, sea smoke, and smog
And much, much more!
Fully illustrated with photographs from key weather trackers, and packed with unusual factoids and records, Skies of Fury reveals the extremes to which Mother Nature can go in both her unparalleled beauty and her wanton destructiveness.

Genres: Science

224 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 1999

About the author

First I must appologize to my family for being the kid who always asked "Why?" But that one word asked many times led me to science and writing--especially in the physical sciences. And all of that led me to have quite an wide range of other writing topics--from weather in Antarctica to the many facets of Forensic Science. Yes, I've always been "the geek next door"... and with more than three dozen books to my credit (mostly on science), no one questions my geekiness anymore!

The latest book is from Visible Ink Press--The Handy Forensic Science Answer Book. Thomas Svarney is my co-author, and is one heck of a researcher. (He also has a science background, so we can discuss the mechanics of the climate without scratching our heads in puzzlement...Well, within reason!) The book was interesting to put together and we learned a great deal about forensics. It was especially fun since the subject includes so many different sciences.

Reviews

[Nyree Anderson · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love learning about the weather and this book is easy to understand as well as very interesting.

[Pam · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book so desperately needs diagrams and clear photographs that I do not understand how or why it has received such high ratings. The writing is relatively interesting but nearly all of the concepts would have been more easily understood if simple line drawings were included. Where photographs are included to show cloud formations, they are fuzzy and too small to understand. I can not imagine why the author or the publisher did not insure that they were included. For potential readers out there, find a better illustrated book that covers the same information.