Historic weather stories are engrained in American
culture. We all remember where we were during the
Storm of the Century and we've heard about the film
and novel The Perfect Storm. Some of us may have
even heard about the Winter of 1899 or the heat
waves of 1936.
However it is often difficult to find anything on these
weather events beyond anecdotal "human interest"
stories. Technical case studies do surface that detail
the more significant events, but many tend to become
obscure, either disappearing into old publications,
minimally circulated, or a victim of the "out of print"
syndrome. This is disappointing as meteorologists
must be able to understand historic record-setting
weather events before they can effectively anticipate
future ones. Numerical models do not perform well in
such situations, yet ironically it is during significant
weather events where they are depended upon most
heavily.
The book Extreme American Weather is a reference
guide for the most significant forecasting events that
have ever occurred in the United States. Surface and
upper-air charts detailing the event's lifecycle are
combined with summaries, newspaper accounts, and
meteorological information. Extreme American
Weather is also educational and interactive,
presenting twelve unanalyzed events with solutions
and discussions so that readers can try their hand at
travelling into the past and analyzing historical
weather.
Who it's for
With technical content that's light on theory and complex information, Extreme American Weather makes a great selection for avid professionals, weather enthusiasts, storm chasers, emergency managers, broadcasters, boaters, and anyone who wants to learn practical, everyday forecasting in an refreshing format.
About the author
Tim Vasquez draws on an extensive tapestry of meteorological experience, which started in his childhood years in California, Germany, the Philippines, Arizona, and Texas. After managing the weather page of a Dallas newspaper for five years, he spent ten years in the Air Force, where he provided aviation weather forecasting and support in Texas, Nevada, England, Korea, and Kenya, as well as television work for AFRTS and KTXS-12 in Abilene. Tim has been an active storm chaser since 1986, an activity where there is no tolerance for forecasting errors. He has also written a suite of weather forecasting tools such as Digital Atmosphere used extensively within the weather industry. Tim is owner of Weather Graphics Technologies and lives in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.
