author: Mike Smith
name: Elaine
average rating: 3.80
book published: 2011
rating: 3
read at: 2010/07/11
date added: 2010/07/12
shelves: history, non-fiction, science
review:
Primarily the story of how the tornado warning system came to be, including the author’s participation as a TV weather guy and then founder of a private weather service. And when he sticks to that, it’s good stuff.
Periodically, there’s these sort of anti-government zingers that just hit me the wrong way, although I can see where they come from, given his experience. Also, the last quarter of the book (except for the last chapter) goes into great detail about hurricanes (specifically Andrew & Katrina), and a lot of that is about the political aspects. So…meh. Although that last chapter is a great wrap-up of the difference between the response to a recent tornado versus response to a tornado 50+ years ago.
And one tiny quibble: the blurb gives the impression that he’s talking about all the different kinds of weather events in the US, when really it’s almost all tornadoes, with a detour into hurricanes. Coming from an area where tornadoes are vanishingly rare, I was a bit disappointed.
I think this makes a good read in conjunction with other weather history books: Children’s Blizzard, Isaac’s Storm, Cliff Mass’s book, etc.