Heather J. (ReadingAddict) reviewed Why the Wind Blows: A History of Weather and Global Warming on + 102 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 1
Why the Wind Blows is definitely informative but I'm still not sure whether I like it or not ...
The Pros
* It's brief (just under 200 pages) but educational.
* The science of weather is paired with stories of weather in action. A few examples: explanation of the monsoon is followed up with the tale of how early seafarers learned to use this changing weather pattern to explore new lands ~ a look at polar ice caps and glacial calving leads into the story of the Titanic and it's history clash with the iceberg ~ a discussion of global wind patterns is better understood with the story of transcontinental global balloon flight ~ a chapter on clouds and precipitation is followed by the disastrous account of the Donner party.
* The stories I mentioned above are quite entertaining. They were my favorite parts of the book.
* I learned lots of little things as I read. For example: the first balloon flight around the world spanned 29,000 miles (46,400 km) and took 20 days ~ Heat "doesn't exist. [...] When we feel a rise in temperature, we are in fact feeling an increase in the speed of molecules around us." (p80) ~ most of Antarctica is actually below sea level due to the immense weight of the ice pressing down on it.
[To read the rest of my review please visit my blog.]
The Pros
* It's brief (just under 200 pages) but educational.
* The science of weather is paired with stories of weather in action. A few examples: explanation of the monsoon is followed up with the tale of how early seafarers learned to use this changing weather pattern to explore new lands ~ a look at polar ice caps and glacial calving leads into the story of the Titanic and it's history clash with the iceberg ~ a discussion of global wind patterns is better understood with the story of transcontinental global balloon flight ~ a chapter on clouds and precipitation is followed by the disastrous account of the Donner party.
* The stories I mentioned above are quite entertaining. They were my favorite parts of the book.
* I learned lots of little things as I read. For example: the first balloon flight around the world spanned 29,000 miles (46,400 km) and took 20 days ~ Heat "doesn't exist. [...] When we feel a rise in temperature, we are in fact feeling an increase in the speed of molecules around us." (p80) ~ most of Antarctica is actually below sea level due to the immense weight of the ice pressing down on it.
[To read the rest of my review please visit my blog.]
