A cracking popular natural and social history of the hurricane
from former Director of the National Hurricane Center Sheets and
Williams, the man who created the chromatic weather page for USA
Today. From a distance, hurricanes are incredibly exciting
phenomena, and through their muscular, edgy writing style,
Sheets and Williams are well suited to bringing these storms to
life on the page. They work chronologically, starting with
Christopher Columbus, who knew what a long ocean swell and high
cirrus cards portended as he noodled about the Caribbean,
providing a history of the first recorded storms (is it any
wonder that Benjamin Franklin was found in the vicinity?) and
following important meteorological breakthroughs. Although the
authors try to keep technical information to digestible bites,
they do paint a very clear portrait of the mechanics of the
atmospheric heat pumps that generate winds and drive
thunderstorms and hurricanes; only occasionally do they sprinkle
such terms as “intertropical convergence z