Encyclopedia of weather and climate /

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Bibliographic Details
Author / Creator:Allaby, Michael.
Imprint:New York, NY : Facts on File, c2002.
Description:2 v. (ix, 672, 34 p.) : ill. ; 29 cm.
Language:English
Subject:Meteorology -- Encyclopedias.
Climatology -- Encyclopedias.
Climatology.
Meteorology.
Encyclopedias.
Format: Print Book
URL for this record:http://pi.lib.uchicago.edu/1001/cat/bib/4899679
Hidden Bibliographic Details
ISBN:0816040710 (set)
0816048010 (v. 1)
0816048029 (v. 2)
Notes:Includes bibliographical references and indexes.

From the Introduction: The weather we experience today is different from that of the Little Ice Age of the 17th century and of the Middle Ages...Today, though, there are fears that the climate may be changing faster than it has done for thousands of years and that the gases we release into the air, from our cars, factories, domestic fires, power stations, farming, and forest clearance may be accelerating that change...If we are to make informed decisions about climate change and the possibility that our activities may be partly responsible for it, we need to know something of the way the atmosphere works, of how our weather is produced.--Michael Allaby For most of history, humans have made every possible effort to accurately foretell the weather, evolving from the use of guesswork, rule of thumb, and signs in the sky to the development of contemporary forecasting techniques drawn from two scientific disciplines, climatology and meteorology. Encyclopedia of Weather and Climate summarizes this knowledge and presents it in a two-volume A-to-Z compendium of nearly 4,000 entries that cover: The processes that produce our weather The circulation of the atmosphere that produces the world's climates Classification of climates Important scientific concepts used by climatologists and meteorologists The history of ideas underlying the atmospheric sciences Biographical accounts of those who have made significant contributions to climatology and meteorology Particular weather events, from extreme tropical cyclones and tornadoes to local winds. Each entry features numerous cross references and definitions of weather- and climate-related terms as well as additional sources for further study. Nearly 300 photographs, maps, and charts offer highly evocative depictions of various weather and climate conditions. Appendixes listing historical examples of disasters caused by bad weather, milestones in the development of the atmospheric sciences, and the geological time scale round out this comprehensive survey. Entries include: Air mass analysis Bath plug vortex Cloud classification Deforestation El NiÂ--o Daniel Fahrenheit Gaia hypothesis Hot lightning Intertropical front Jet streams Kuroshio Current Lake-breeze front Marine forecast Nimbus satellites Oasis effect Peak gust Quasi-stationary front Radar wind Subpolar region Temperate belt Urban canyon layer Variable gas Weather stations Xerothermic Young ice Zonal circulation. Excerpted from Encyclopedia of Weather and Climate by Michael Allaby All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.