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Storms, Violent Winds, and Earth's Atmosphere by John P. Rafferty

Rosen Education Service | 2010 | ISBN: 1615301143, 1615301887 | 249 pages | PDF | 14 MB

Anyone who has ever been caught in a severe storm will be able to tell you a little bit about the awesome power of inclement weather. Most people have had a personal experience with severe weather. Perhaps swirling winds have downed a tree on their street, or lightning has struck the roof of a neighbor’s house. Tornadoes, hurricanes (the North American name for tropical cyclones), thunderstorms, and violent winds all are capable of devastating one’s immediate physical surroundings. Time and time again, stories about such storms serve as useful reminders that the weather, especially in its most violent forms, demands respect and attention at all times.

While readers are undoubtedly familiar with a storm’s awe-inspiring capacity to inflict damage, they might know significantly less about how such events originate in our atmosphere, how they are classified, and how scientists track and predict them. This volume details the patterns and tendencies of wind-related storms, and offers historical examples that vividly illustrate the havoc nature can wreak. The life cycle of any given weather system begins long before most of its damaging properties can be detected. High winds, hurricanes, and tornadoes begin as subtle atmospheric processes. Indeed, each kind of storm relies on a particular set of atmospheric conditions in order to form. Atmospheric temperature is one of the many vital factors in the formation of storms and weather systems. Variations in temperature help determine which way air will flow in the atmosphere, and thus have a substantial impact on atmospheric pressure. Typically, inclement weather is associated with low pressure at Earth’s surface, while high pressure...