John D. Cox - Weather For Dummies

Weather For Dummies, 2nd Edition

Published by: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030-5774, www.wiley.com

Copyright 2021 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey

Published simultaneously in Canada

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning or otherwise, except as permitted under Sections 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without the prior written permission of the Publisher. Requests to the Publisher for permission should be addressed to the Permissions Department, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030, (201) 748-6011, fax (201) 748-6008, or online at http://www.wiley.com/go/permissions .

Trademarks: Wiley, For Dummies, the Dummies Man logo, Dummies.com, Making Everything Easier, and related trade dress are trademarks or registered trademarks of John Wiley & Sons, Inc. and may not be used without written permission. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. John Wiley & Sons, Inc. is not associated with any product or vendor mentioned in this book.

LIMIT OF LIABILITY/DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTY: THE PUBLISHER AND THE AUTHOR MAKE NO REPRESENTATIONS OR WARRANTIES WITH RESPECT TO THE ACCURACY OR COMPLETENESS OF THE CONTENTS OF THIS WORK AND SPECIFICALLY DISCLAIM ALL WARRANTIES, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION WARRANTIES OF FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. NO WARRANTY MAY BE CREATED OR EXTENDED BY SALES OR PROMOTIONAL MATERIALS. THE ADVICE AND STRATEGIES CONTAINED HEREIN MAY NOT BE SUITABLE FOR EVERY SITUATION. THIS WORK IS SOLD WITH THE UNDERSTANDING THAT THE PUBLISHER IS NOT ENGAGED IN RENDERING LEGAL, ACCOUNTING, OR OTHER PROFESSIONAL SERVICES. IF PROFESSIONAL ASSISTANCE IS REQUIRED, THE SERVICES OF A COMPETENT PROFESSIONAL PERSON SHOULD BE SOUGHT. NEITHER THE PUBLISHER NOR THE AUTHOR SHALL BE LIABLE FOR DAMAGES ARISING HEREFROM. THE FACT THAT AN ORGANIZATION OR WEBSITE IS REFERRED TO IN THIS WORK AS A CITATION AND/OR A POTENTIAL SOURCE OF FURTHER INFORMATION DOES NOT MEAN THAT THE AUTHOR OR THE PUBLISHER ENDORSES THE INFORMATION THE ORGANIZATION OR WEBSITE MAY PROVIDE OR RECOMMENDATIONS IT MAY MAKE. FURTHER, READERS SHOULD BE AWARE THAT INTERNET WEBSITES LISTED IN THIS WORK MAY HAVE CHANGED OR DISAPPEARED BETWEEN WHEN THIS WORK WAS WRITTEN AND WHEN IT IS READ.

For general information on our other products and services, please contact our Customer Care Department within the U.S. at 877-762-2974, outside the U.S. at 317-572-3993, or fax 317-572-4002. For technical support, please visit https://hub.wiley.com/community/support/dummies .

Wiley publishes in a variety of print and electronic formats and by print-on-demand. Some material included with standard print versions of this book may not be included in e-books or in print-on-demand. If this book refers to media such as a CD or DVD that is not included in the version you purchased, you may download this material at http://booksupport.wiley.com . For more information about Wiley products, visit www.wiley.com .

Library of Congress Control Number: 2021942674

ISBN 978-1-119-81100-8 (pbk); ISBN 978-1-119-81101-5 (ebk); ISBN 978-1-119-81102-2 (ebk)

1. Chapter 7
2. Chapter 9

1. Chapter 2
2. Chapter 3
3. Chapter 4
4. Chapter 5
5. Chapter 6
6. Chapter 7
7. Chapter 8
8. Chapter 9
9. Chapter 10
10. Chapter 12
11. Chapter 13
12. Chapter 14
13. Chapter 15
14. Chapter 16
15. Chapter 17

Weather is a big part of life. It is part of life in the sense that weather is something that everyone experiences more or less directly every day. And weathers extremes of storm and heat are something that most people have to put up with at one time or another.

But weather is part of life in another, bigger sense. It is part of life in the same way the air that you and I breathe is part of it. Often weather gets talked about as something that interferes with travel plans or interrupts a picnic, but that is not the point. Without weather, there is no picnic. No food, no forest, no flowing fresh water.

Whats going on up there when the wind blows, when the clouds roll in, when the rain falls and the lightning flashes? To wonder about these things is to share some thoughts with the first people who poked their heads out of a cave and looked up into the dark sky of a violent storm. It is part of being human. This wondering about the weather came long before there was reading and writing and science, and long before there were reasonable explanations for these things. Some of the old explanations, you wouldnt believe. The wind, the clouds, the rain, and the lightning make a lot more sense to the likes of you and me than they used to, but when all is said and done, you have to admit, still they are wonderful!

The reasonable weather explanations that separate you and me from the folks poking out of the cave are part of the modern knowledge specialty of meteorology, which is the five-dollar word for the science of weather and climate. Thats what this book is all about. Weather scientists know the answers now to the basic questions about the changes that take place in the sky and plenty more.

Already you know more than you probably think you do about the weather. Phrases like low-pressure system and high-pressure ridge have become familiar, even if not so well understood. And images from space satellites of enormous arms and blotches of cloudiness slowly swirling over the surface of Earth appear on television screens and on our smartphones as familiar as the faces of friends. Already you are ahead of people who wondered about the weather some 60 years ago before the satellites went into orbit and made the great size of storms so obvious.

So even before you tackle the details of the comings and goings in the air over your head, some congratulations are in order. In most times past, when people wondered about the weather, they were scared to death. They were frightened by the storms, and when they asked questions about them, they were frightened by the answers they got. If I told you it was the magic of the witch doctor, or the fact that the gods are angry, now you would laugh at me. You and I have come a long way, baby.

There is no right way to read this book, and no wrong way to read it either. You can read it straight through from the first page to the last, but you dont need to. You dont need to read , for example.) Weather For Dummies is your ready reference on the subject.

To write this book, I had to make some assumptions about you. I think you are somebody who enjoys watching the changes that take place in the sky from day to day, or month to month. You take some satisfaction in knowing whats behind these changes. You like to know the meaning of the words you hear or read in the daily weather reports simply because you like to know the meaning of the words you hear. And from time to time, you have some questions about how the weather works.