Hurricane Watch: Forecasting the Deadliest Storms on Earth

Dr. Bob Sheets knows hurricanes inside and out from research and first-hand experience.

Just started and find it fascinating. Even gives a bit of a history of how America trade began and Christopher Columbus being kind of our first weather forecaster. I look up online a word I don't know and it really is expanding my vocabulary. I also have the map brought up online to see the places and ports that had trade or hurricanes and it's good to know that the wind speeds off Florida and near the Bahamas was much faster than the folks of the old country experienced in the Mediterranean area. This book and adds perspective to todays storms in the southern and eastern US.

I am fascinated with violent natural phenomena (tornadoes, hurricanes, and earthquakes) and the science surrounding them. Therefore, I really enjoyed this book.This book is a fascinating history of the science of hurricanes and hurricane forecasting. It traces the history from the discovery of hurricanes by Spanish explorers (Columbus, et al) and some of the primitive observational rules of thumb that followed along with countermeasures taken against hurricanes, once recognized. The history continues through the centuries with progress being made until the turn of the twentieth century, when major strides have been made. There is a decade by decade history during the twentieth century. The amazing strides from WWII to the time the book was written are very interesting.Some of the more prominent hurricanes (1900 Galveston, Audrey, Camille, and Andrew) are recounted and how discoveries and new technologies have aided in gaining more accurate predictions as to where the storm will go and its intensity.I would hope that they would update the book with more recent storms detailing advances in technology and forecasting.All in all, a very interesting and informative read.

mind opening.

Ever since I was a child trapped inside by the pouring rain as the remnants of Camille passed over East Tennessee, I have been fascinated by hurricanes. With that in mind, this book was hard to resist. Especially since I had spent many hours watching Dr. Sheets on television. It is pretty obvious though that Jack Williams did most of the writing and for those of us who are not that familiar with the science of meteorology that is a very good thing for this is a very complicated subject and dumbing down is exactly what I needed.This book is not so much a book about major hurricanes as it is a history of the predicting of hurricanes. From Columbus to the present satellites and Doppler systems this book tells the story of man's attempts to guess what Mother Nature is up to. There is even a chapter about attempts to actually control hurricanes.Even with the simple way the authors attempted to tell their story I was lost at times but not all too often. For a trained meteorologist this book would probably seem almost childish, but for the average person like myself it is just about right. I still don't completely understand everything about wind sheer, computer models, and latent heat but I am at least familiar with the terms now. From now on, as a hurricane approaches the U.S. coast and I sit there in front of the TV I will have a vague idea of how the computer models work and will know all about the Bermuda high.The chapter I found the most interesting was the chapter about hurricane Andrew. That is the kind of thing I was actually looking for in this book but even though I only found one chapter of what I had been looking for, I still found this book to be highly informative, interesting, and well written. I imagine that Dr. Sheets could write an entire book on Andrew, and I wish he would

Too old, was written before the very busy 2004 and 2005 hurricane seasons. I didn't really read it much because there are better books available.

The thrilling hurricanes put me on needles and pins. I felt like I was there when it went through. I would recommend this book to all readers of storms. Thank you. Karen Kay Ullom

Interesting bit of weather history.