I have published a new book:
WEATHER or NOT: Meteorological Decision Sources
Make your own weather and climate related decisions
by Dave Matthews, PhD
Copyright 2017 by Dave Matthews, PhD
You can go to Amazon Kindle eBooks to have a look and order the book. This book deals with all forms of weather and climate information sources that can improve your life's decisions. New and improved October 2017 version is now available that includes information about the 2017 devistating hurricane season and links to clear figures. Amazon automatically updates your original version.
I will donate 90% of the royalties from the first year to the victims of this year's catastropic hurricanes: Harvey, Irma, and Maria via the Rotary hurricane victim recovery fund. Your reviews are appreciated.
Weather impacts your decisions every day, and having accurate forecasts help you decide what to wear or do, or possibly save your life when severe weather hits. Chances are you’ve gone online to find out what the weather’s going to do before, but there’s a lot of options.
The Internet puts a ton of weather data at your fingertips, but it’s not the easiest to navigate. It’s also sometimes difficult to tell whether or not a source is reputable. It is my hope that this book will provide a source of information that you can use each day to plan your life and work from vacations and sports, flights and sailing, to planting and harvesting, and understand better complex issues like climate and climate change. I have provided examples in figures that demonstrate how to navigate the pages where you can find this information.
We’re bombarded with weather information every day, so it’s important to know how to independently assess the truth. This book provides a ready source of truthful scientific information that you can easily use, understand and evaluate. It is designed as an electronic “e-book,” that can be used as a real-time reference to free web sites and Apps which are maintained by scientists around the world. You can see what is really happening and make your own decisions.
To illustrate my point, I’ll discuss severe storms, flooding, summer snows on Greenland, winter storms in the Antarctic and Andes, and surfing waves and sea surface temperatures in the Pacific, etc. Many of these examples address climate change and sea level rise issues like the extent of glaciers and their recession and growth. I have provided examples in figures that demonstrate how to navigate the complex web pages, while showing interesting cases that provide information on severe storms, flooding, summer snows on Greenland, winter storms in the Antarctic and Andes, surfing waves and sea surface temperatures in the Pacific, etc. Many of these examples address climate change and sea level rise issues like the extent of glaciers and their recession and growth.
As I do the final edit and formatting of this book we have experienced an Epic Hurricane Harvey and resulting 1000-year flood in Texas. The sources I discuss in this book did an outstanding job of predicting this truly catastrophic storm. Windy.com’s prediction of the total 10-day accumulation of precipitation was 45 to 55 inches along the Gulf Coast near Houston. Today, on September 4, 2017, the ECMWF 10-day forecast has Hurricane Irma heading to the south Florida east coast with 222 mm of rain around Miami and on up into Virginia. This track has been changing, hence the need to closely monitor conditions and use the latest National Hurricane Center warnings. At this time the NHC is showing a track across the Caribbean Islands toward south Florida and Cuba possibly again into the Gulf of Mexico.