A resource for those intrigued by events in the sky – clouds, precipitation, storms, aurora, halos – and for those who follow daily weather events. Using a nontechnical approach, the authors describe the flow of energy and moisture through global and local landscapes and how they evolve into day-to-day weather. For those fascinated by the sky's colours and patterns, there are halos, rainbows, iridescent clouds, and other tapestries in the sky. For the cloud-watcher, common and unusual cloud forms are covered; for those entranced by storms, Peterson Field Guide to Weather includes severe thunderstorms, winter blizzards, hurricanes, hail, ice storms, and other challenges that the atmosphere inflicts. It even includes a chapter on weather in the atmospheres of the planets and the sun. More than 400 photographs illustrate visible weather, and diagrams explain the more challenging physical concepts. Peterson Field Guide to Weather is designed for those who want to look up, marvel, and understand what they see.
Jay Pasachoff is an astronomer, Field Memorial Professor of Astronomy, and Director of the Hopkins Observatory at Williams College. He is the author of the Peterson Field Guide to the Stars and Planets. He is also co-author of a leading astronomy survey text, The Cosmos: Astronomy in the New Millennium and coauthor of Cosmos: The Art and Science of the Universe. He lives in Williamstown, Massachusetts.
John A. Day was a weather forecaster, a professor of physics and meteorology, a researcher studying cloud physics, and an author of college texts on weather.