Product Description

A book to accompany the BBC TV series that voyages to the heart of the weather, the very breath of the planet. With computer graphics, it recreates unseen wonders, and via solar storms and the jet stream we encounter the most exciting and dangerous forces of the last truly wild thing on Earth.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #127566 in Books
• Published on: 2002-09-26
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 240 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
We northwest Europeans certainly experience weather even if it is not particularly wild by global standards. And, whether we like it not, we need to understand it because it is going to play an increasing role in our lives as global climates change. As John Lynch concludes Wild Weather, "the signs of change are no longer buried in scientific data. They are here for all of us to see". It can be quite difficult to make weather sexy but Wild Weather does a pretty good job at making it absolutely fascinating. Stunning pictures, good graphics and an excellent mixture of science, history and some very good stories will hopefully help to inform a new generation of general readers who did not enjoy the "benefits" of old style climatology at school. Fortunately now there is a much more coherent story to tell about how weather results from linkage between energy from the Sun, the oceans and atmosphere. And, satellite imagery helps give the big picture in a way that was never possible before. John Lynch has been involved with BBC science since 1976 and worked on some of its most successful series such as Walking with Dinosaurs, so he knows his stuff and how to present it in an attractive and interesting way. Next time you are about to complain about our weather remember that we live in a climatic battle ground between the Atlantic with its wet prevailing southwesterlies and the continental interior--hot in summer and cold in winter. We are lucky that as John Lynch says we live in the "Goldilocks zone--neither too hot nor too cold, too wet nor too dry, too windy nor too calm... Earth is a perfect home". Certainly by comparison with Venus and Mars it is. A bibliography (too short) and index complete this otherwise excellent book. --Douglas Palmer

Customer Reviews

Well written, easy to understand, beautiful pictures
Wild Weather is divided into six chapters: 1) Weatherworld; 2) Wind; 3) Wet; 4) Cold; 5) Hot; 6) Change. There's a forward by Donal MacIntyre (the man who presented the Wild Weather TV series so bravely) and at the end there's a bibliography and an index. It's a lovely book. It's written in plain English and describes and explains this complex and fascinating subject in such a way that any interested person of average intelligence could easily understand. The photographs are stunning. There are also computer generated images to represent phenomena that couldn't possibly be photographed, such as for example, raindrops forming as a result of water molecules adhering to dust particles and fungi spores. And there are clear and helpful diagrams to help explain things like cloud formation and air and ocean currents.

The title "Wild Weather" might be slightly misleading because it makes it seem narrower than it really is. It's equally a book about global climate and how that influences local weather. For example, in order to describe the conditions that lead to El Niños and La Niñas, the normal conditions have also to be explained - the usual situation gives the unusual a meaningful context. The book is packed with the drama of severe weather but for anyone who's just interested in learning about how Earth's climate operates and how it determines local weather conditions and some of the knock-on effects on the world economy, there's plenty to satisfy their curiosity here. I enthusiastically recommend it.

Absolutely Fantastic
Donal McIntyre produced some outstanding stuff on the BBC documentarys to partner this book. His foreword defines magnificent. A brilliant insight into what the man went through and some of the trecherous weather he ploughed through to get all the filming done. The Book, again is fantastic. A wonderful insight into the mechanics behind weather and the machinery used to measure and try ro control weather. Such an interesting read, you can bamboozle all your friends with some of the interesting facts inside! A great read, BUY IT!