Shopping CartSources for Chapter 3
The books, Web sites, journal articles, and interviews listed on this page are sources of information other than facts and concepts found in most beginning college-level meteorology textbooks, which the author used or that could help readers better understand the concepts described. For more on various topics, including further reading and links to related Web sites, follow the links labeled “Explorations.” Links labeled “Outtakes” are to text from early drafts of the book that were dropped before publication.
In the notes below “the author” refers to Jack Williams, author of The AMS Weather Book.
Page 48
- Jim Minardi’s Hurricane Charley experiences are based on the author’s interview with him at his home in Punta Gorda, Florida, in June 2005, and subsequent e-mail exchanges.
Page 51
- Air and water pressure graphic:Air pressure values for different altitudes are from the International Civil Aviation Organization’s (ICAO) Standard Atmosphere table in C. Donald Ahrens, Meteorology Today: An Introduction to Weather, Climate, and the Environment, Fifth Edition (St. Paul, MN: West Publishing Company, 1994), 549. Unlike most such tables, this one has both metric and U.S. units. The digitaldutch.com’s 1976 Standard Atmosphere Calculator was used to calculate pressure values for altitudes not listed in the tables.
- Explorations: The Standard Atmosphere
Page 52
- Measuring air pressure: Gabrielle Walker has an extensive and fascinating discussion of the discovery that air has pressure and the invention of the barometer in her book An Ocean of Air: Why the Wind Blows and Other Mysteries of the Atmosphere (New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2008), 7–31.
- Outtakes: Reading a Barometer Is Tricky
Page 53
- Bjerknes persuades meteorologists to use direct pressure measurements: Robert Marc Friedman, Appropriating the Weather: Vilhelm Bjerknes and the Construction of Modern Meteorology (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1989), 62–63.
- Hurricane Charley’s central pressure: The National Hurricane Center’s August 13, 2004, 2 p.m., public advisory. Surface pressure in Fort Myers at 2 p.m. from the Weather Underground’s weather history for Fort Myers, August 13, 2004.
Page 54
- Surface pressures for Boise, Idaho, and Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan: NWS’s Daily Weather Map for December 10, 2005.
Page 55–56
- Forces that curve wind: See Explorations: The Coriolis Force.
Page 57–59
- Wind protection: Author’s telephone interview with Charles Harper;the Texas Tech University Wind Science & Engineering Research Center’s Protection from Extreme Wind Web page; The Tornado Project’s Myths and Misconceptions About Tornadoes Web page. (The myth regarding opening windows during a tornado is Myth 4, the second item down the page.)
Page 59
- Hurricane-resistant homes: Author’s telephone interview with Jim Minardi in November 2005. BobVila.com, “Rebuilding to Beat a Hurricane.” Minardi’s story is the basis for the Storm Struck attraction at Disney’s Epcot Theme Park, in Orlando. The Storm Struck Web site describes it as an “interactive, educational weather experience that will allow guests to experience a simulated windstorm and learn safe building techniques through fun and play.”
Page 60–61
- Jet streams graphic and pressures and temperatures aloft figures are based on winter data from the contiguous 48 U.S. states, found on the University of Wyoming Department of Atmospheric Science Upper Air soundings page. This page has global, weather balloon data from most of the world for each day, beginning in 1973 through the years to the latest soundings.
Page 62
- Wind speeds and pressures table: Calculations were made using the formula: wind speed (in mph) squared times 0.004 equals the pressure in pounds per square foot from C. Donald Ahrens, Meteorology Today: An Introduction to Weather, Climate, and the Environment, Fifth Edition (St. Paul, MN: West Publishing Company, 1994), 258.
Page 63
- Air Force One turbulence: The story originally came from a CNN transcript that can no longer be found on the Web. It’s mentioned near the opening of a USATODAY.com story about airline turbulence.
- December 21, 2005, Southern California surf: Alex Roth, “Monster Waves Test Surfers’ Skills from Southern California to Baja,” San Diego Union-Tribune, (December 22, 2005). The article includes links to dozens of photos.
- Tsunamis and rogue waves: The Queen Mary rogue wave incident is described in Daniel Allen Butler, The Age of Cunard (Culver City, CA: ProStar Publications, 2004), 316–317. (See page 65, below, for tsunamis.)
Page 64
- Tim Marshall profile:Author’s telephone interview and e-mail exchanges with Tim Marshall.
Page 65
- Huge, fast-moving waves: U.S. Geological Survey’s (USGS) Life of a Tsunami Web page.
- December 26, 2004, Indian Ocean tsunami: USGS’s Web page; National Public Radio’s series of 199 reports on the tsunami and its aftermath.
- Rich fishing areas: Donald B. Olson, et al., “Life on the Edge: Marine Life and Fronts,” Oceanography 7, no. 2 (1994): 52–60.
Page 66
- Benjamin Franklin and the Gulf Stream: The NOAA’s Readings for Ocean Explorers Web site has the complete text of Franklin’s long letter to a colleague in France on the Gulf Stream and other nautical matters.
Page 67
- Upwelling and coastal water temperatures: NOAA National Oceanic Data Center’s U.S. Coastal Water Temperature Guide.
Page 68
- Lynne Talley profile: Author’s telephone interview and e-mail exchanges with Talley; Lynne Talley's home page.
Page 69
- Water density examples were calculated in metric units, using the CGS Water Density Calculator, and then converted to U.S. units.
- Explorations: The Meridional Overturning Circulation
