The Handy Weather Answer Book

338 Pages·2009·9.27 MB·English

by  Kevin Hile

handy weather FM 4/2/09 9:39 AM Page i
About the Author
Kevin Hile is a Michigan-based author and edi-
tor who has written books on a wide range of
subjects. His authored titles include Animal
Rights, The Trial of Juveniles as Adults, Dams
and Levees, Cesar Chavez, Centaurs, Ghost
Ships, ESP,and Little Zoo by the Red Cedar: The
Story of Potter Park Zoo. As an editor, he has
worked with Visible Ink on a variety of science-
related books, including The Handy Math
Answer Book, The Handy Geology Answer
Book, The Handy Anatomy Answer Book, and
The Handy Anatomy Answer Book. He lives in
Mason, Michigan.
handy weather FM 4/2/09 9:39 AM Page ii
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KEVIN HILE
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handy weather FM 4/2/09 9:40 AM Page iv
THE Copyright © 2009 by Visible Ink Press®
This publication is a creative work fully protected by all applicable copyright
HANDY
laws, as well as by misappropriation, trade secret, unfair competition, and other
applicable laws.
WEATHER
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without permission in writ-
ing from the publisher, except by a reviewer who wishes to quote brief passages
ANSWER in connection with a review written for inclusion in a magazine, newspaper, or
web site.
BOOK All rights to this publication will be vigorously defended.
Visible Ink Press®
43311 Joy Rd., #414
Canton, MI 48187-2075
Visible Ink Press is a registered trademark of Visible Ink Press LLC.
Most Visible Ink Press books are available at special quantity discounts when
purchased in bulk by corporations, organizations, or groups. Customized print-
ings, special imprints, messages, and excerpts can be produced to meet your
needs. For more information, contact Special Markets Director, Visible Ink
Press, www.visibleink.com, or 734-667-3211.
Managing Editor: Kevin S. Hile
Art Director: Mary Claire Krzewinski
Typesetting: Marco Di Vita
Proofreaders: Amy Marcaccio Keyser
ISBN 978-1-57859-221-0
Cover images: iStock.com
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Hile, Kevin.
The handy weather answer book / Kevin Hile. — 2nd ed.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN-13: 978-1-57859-221-0
ISBN-10: 1-57859-221-6
1. Meteorology—Miscellanea. 2. Weather—Miscellanea.
3. Climatology—Miscellanea. I. Title.
QC870H55 2009
551.6—dc22 2009012140
Printed in the United States of America
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
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Contents
INTRODUCTION vii
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS x
INDEX 309
WEATHER ATMOSPHERIC
FUNDAMENTALS 1 PHENOMENA 159
Terms to Know … Organizations … Lightning … Thunder and Thunderstorms
Measurements … Early Weather History … … Rainbows and Other Colorful
The Seasons Phenomena
THE ATMOSPHERE 25 GEOGRAPHY,
OCEANOGRAPHY,
Atmosphere Basics … Air and Air Pressure
… Layers of the Atmosphere … The Ozone AND WEATHER 185
Layer … Wind … Wind Storms Plate Tectonics … Rain, Ice, and Geography
… Volcanoes … Oceanography and
Weather … Ocean Currents
HEAT AND COLD 59
Measuring Temperature … Heat … Cold
WEATHER IN SPACE 205
The Moon … The Sun … Sunspots and
CLOUDS AND
Solar Activity … The Magnetic Field … Van
PRECIPITATION 83
Allen Belts … Neutrinos … Cosmic Rays …
Clouds … Precipitation … Humidity … Meteors, Meteorites, Asteroids, and Comets
Floods … Ice, Snow, Hail, and Frost
HUMANITY AND
STORMY WEATHER 117 THE WEATHER 235
Blizzards and Avalanches … Hurricanes, Humanity’s Impact … General Pollution
Monsoons, and Tropical Storms … Floods Facts … Air Pollution … Water Pollution
… Tornadoes … Radiation v
handy weather FM 4/2/09 9:40 AM Page vi
CLIMATE CHANGE 257 MODERN
METEOROLOGY 283
Climate Basics … Ice Ages … Global
Warming Forecasting … Radar … Satellites …
Careers in Meteorology
vi
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Introduction
I
t is no exaggeration to say that weather affects everything we do in our lives.
Weather influences how we dress, changes our plans for outdoor activities, cancels
sporting events, closes airports, changes the course of wars, erodes mountains,
destroys entire towns and cities, and has even been blamed for the death of U.S.
President William Henry Harrison and the fiery 1986 crash of the Space Shuttle
Challenger.
While inclement weather might cause us discomfort or even death, our very
lives depend on it to sustain agriculture and to keep our bodies healthy. Without
weather, the Earth’s atmosphere would remain stagnant, rivers and lakes would dry
up, and it would be hard to imagine any life thriving on our planet’s continents and
islands. On the lighter side, weather provides us with a lot of fun: because of weath-
er, we can fly a kite, go skiing, have a snowball fight, or experience the simple joy
of splashing in a fresh puddle of rain water.
Because of its power and potential for both harm and good, the weather has
been a subject of intense interest and scrutiny by human beings since ancient
times. The American humorist Mark Twain once said, “Everybody talks about the
weather, but nobody does anything about it.” That’s not entirely true. People have
tried to predict it, even manipulate and change it, for thousands of years, but usu-
ally to know great effect. Native American shamans, for example, were known for
performing “rain dances” in the hope of causing rain to fall; rain dances have been
a cultural part of many other civilizations, too, ranging from ancient Egypt to mod-
ern-day life in the Balkans. The ancient Greeks considered weather so important
that control of rain and lightning was accredited to Zeus, the king of the gods. The
Greeks would therefore pray to Zeus on matters regarding the weather. Of course,
with the establishment of the monotheistic religions of Judaism, Christianity, and
Islam, control of the weather was regarded as something only God could command.
Philosophers and scientists have long struggled to comprehend the complexi-
ties of the weather. Early Greeks, such as Aristotle and Theophrastus of Eresus,
mixed in a good deal of conventional wisdom and traditional beliefs with their own
efforts to explain and predict weather. With the Renaissance, the Age of Reason, and
the Industrial Revolution, science, with the aid of more sophisticated instruments vii
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ranging from thermometers and barometers to satellites and Doppler radar, began
to measure and analyze the weather more precisely and come up with better theo-
ries about cloud formation, temperature, air pressure, and so on.
Despite steadily improving modern technology, predicting the weather is still,
in many ways, a haphazard occupation. Some people joke that meteorologists are
the only professionals who can keep their jobs and still be wrong half the time. This
is really an unfair criticism, though, because modern meteorology has made
notable improvements in the critical discipline of predicting severe weather, includ-
ing hurricanes and tornadoes. Because of efforts by such organizations as the
National Weather Service, many lives have been saved in recent decades.
Yet it seems unlikely that we will ever get to the point of being able to predict
the weather with 100 percent accuracy. Indeed, according to chaos theory, this is an
impossible goal. If, as has been said, a butterfly flapping its wings in China can even-
tually give birth to a tornado in Oklahoma, what chance do we have of predicting
the weather? Because this task seems so hopeless, some people have tried to change
the weather directly. For example, scientists have studied cloud seeding with the
goal of making it rain in places experiencing prolonged droughts.
Humanity has, indeed, changed the weather. But, as most environmentalists
assert, we have done so mostly by accident, and not necessarily for the better. Cli-
mate change, ozone holes, and global warming have become catch phrases that
inspire great concern among scientists, politicians, and people in general. The pol-
lution of our modern civilization, including carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide,
methane, CFCs, and other chemical compounds resulting from industry, agricul-
ture, automobiles, and other sources have been blamed. Many worry that if we don’t
do something immediately, sea levels will rise, droughts and violent storms will
plague humanity, and mass population migrations will result in wars over land,
food, and other resources. Still others believe that we are already past the point of
no return and climate change is already here today.
Without a firm grasp of meteorology, climatology, hydrology, and other related
fields, it is easy to feel ignorant and overwhelmed about what is going on in the cur-
rent debates on our changing weather. The Handy Weather Answer Book is
designed to answer your questions in an easy-to-understand format. This book is
divided into several chapters by topic, and, all together, it answers over 1,000 ques-
tions, ranging from the fundamentals to the cutting-edge of science.
The questions and answers presented here not only cover the usual topics we
think about when the subject of weather is brought up (rain, snow, drought, tem-
perature, tornadoes, etc.), but also other phenomena that are related to or affect the
weather in some way. For this reason, The Handy Weather Answer Book also
addresses such areas as atmospheric phenomena, the effects of geographical
changes and the oceans on the weather, how our outer space neighborhood influ-
ences weather, and theories about climate change.
The Handy Weather Answer Bookwill take the mystery out of meteorology and,
hopefully, inject a bit of fun and excitement into the topic, as well. If you get truly
viii inspired by the subject of weather, the last chapter of this book offers some advice
handy weather FM 4/2/09 9:40 AM Page ix
and information about careers in meteorological sciences in case you wish to pur-
sue a formal education in the field.
Many people grouch about the weather. Some even move their places of resi-
dence in an effort to avoid it. But a true understanding of the weather can also lend
itself to an appreciation of nature and the power behind it. The aesthetic person can
discover the beauty of God in a snowflake; the scientist can marvel at the physics
behind a twister and the swirl of a hurricane; and all humanity can be humbled by
the wild spirit that is weather, the force that refuses to be tamed. As the British
author George Robert Gissing once put it:
For the man sound of body and serene of mind there is no such thing as
bad weather; every day has its beauty, and storms which whip the blood
do but make it pulse more vigorously.
—Kevin Hile
ix