Storm Watchers

Today's weather forecasting is a marvel of digital electronics; it is more accurate, more objective, and more useful than ever. It is the product of advanced meterorological science, employing some of the most powerful and sophisticated computers on the planet. But before all this modern technology was the work of a few determined, brilliant individuals. These men persevered without the benefit of such devices as satellites and automated weather stations to discover how the atmosphere works and how to foretell its future. Storm Watchers tells the remarkable, little-known stories of these pioneering scientists. John Cox presents their epic quest to determine how to predict the weather accurately, tracing the development of meteorology from the time of Aristotle up to the recent breakthroughs in weather prediction.
Before science explained the ways of the winds and the causes of storms, the study of weather was an act of courage. Cox reveals how the early weathermen struggled to have their voices heard even as naysayers outnumbered them. He also explains how, in later years, conflicts raged on both sides of the Atlantic, with "practical" weather forecasters on one end of the debate and "pure" scientific researchers on the other -- each suppressing promising developments. Cox highlights the groundbreaking work of these storm watchers, from the invention of the thermometer by Galileo to the investigation of the character of storms to the advent of the digital electronic computer, a tool so powerful it fundamentally changed how weather forecasters and atmospheric researchers worked.
This lively narrative account also includes fascinating stories of many devastating storms, floods, shipwrecks, climate changes, and weather controversies in history. It takes a fresh, behind-the-scenes look at the "American Storm Controversy" and the conflicting forecasts that delayed D-Day. It also tells how early meteorology was considered one step removed from sorcery and about the "discovery" of El Nino. The efforts of the weathermen profiled in this book have saved and continue to save many lives. Storm Watchers is as much a tribute to their persistence and genius as it is a testament to the remarkable achievement of weather prediction -- powerful, everyday science that is too often taken for granted today.

• Pt. I A Newborn Babe
• 1 Benjamin Franklin: Chasing the Wind
• 2 Luke Howard: Naming the Clouds
• 3 James Glaisher: Taking to the Air

  Pt. II American Storms

• 4 William C. Redfield: Walking the Path of Destruction
• 5 James P. Espy: "The Storm Breeder"
• 6 Elias Loomis: Mapping the Storm
• 7 Joseph Henry: Setting the Stage
• 8 Matthew Fontaine Maury: A Storm of Controversy
• 9 William Ferrel: A Shy Genius

  Pt. III The Main Artery

• 10 Robert FitzRoy: Prophet Without Honor
• 11 Urbain J. J. Le Verrier: Clouds over Crimea
• 12 Cleveland Abbe: "Ol' Probabilities"
• 13 John P. Finley: Down Tornado Alley
• 14 Mark W. Harrington: Civilian Casualty
• 15 Isaac Monroe Cline: Taking Galveston by Storm
• 16 Gilbert Walker: The Southern Oscillation
• 17 C. LeRoy Meisinger: Death by Daring

  Pt. IV Together at the Front

• 18 Vilhelm Bjerknes: The Bergen Schoolmaster
• 19 Lewis Fry Richardson: The Forecasting Factory
• 20 Jacob Bjerknes: From Polar Front to El Nino
• 21 Tor Bergeron: A Gifted Vision
• 22 Carl-Gustaf Rossby: Conquering the Weather Bureau
• 23 Sverre Petterssen: Forecasting for D-Day

  Pt. V Suddenly New Science

• 24 Jule Gregory Charney: Mastering the Math
• 25 Jerome Namias: The Long Ranger
• 26 Edward N. Lorenz: Calculating Chaos
• 27 Tetsuya Theodore Fujita: Divining the Downburst
• 28 Ants Leetmaa: Out on a Limb
• Bibliography