Review by Choice Review
This engagingly written book fills a niche between children's weather books and college-level meteorology books. Douglas, a Minneapolis TV meteorologist at one of the nation's leading affiliates in local weather presentation, has obviously devoted years of off-air effort to this labor of love. The book is organized into chapters on weather disasters, the seasons, tornadoes, hurricanes, thunderstorms, climate change, weather forecasting, broadcast meteorology, and trivia and folklore (including a non-trivial weather quiz). Although the book is not a comprehensive survey of meteorology, each chapter presents up-to-date information with sumptuous graphics equal or superior to those found in college-level course resources. Restless Skies is most directly comparable to Weather: A Visual Guide, by Bruce Buckley et al. (2004), and Severe and Hazardous Weather, by Robert M. Rauber et al. (2nd ed., 2005), more affordable and more targeted to the general reader than the latter. Some typos and questionable statements exist, but no more than in a typical first-edition course resource. In summary, Restless Skies is of unusually high visual and textual quality and will enlighten a wide audience, with something new for everyone up to the level of professionals in meteorology. ^BSumming Up: Essential. All levels. J. A. Knox University of Georgia
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Booklist Review
Meteorologist Douglas informs Twin Cities TV viewers about local weather, and his eclectic volume on the subject holds together by emphasizing safety strategies for use in dangerous weather. Definitely a trait qualifying the work for library use, the safety angle is focused on the U.S and packed with a compendium of historical information about disasters. He also contributes his perspective as the weatherman, who seems to authoritatively predict the future, by stressing that forecasting is more an art than a science. Douglas devotes a good portion of the text to the technology on which forecasting relies, explaining the collection of data from radar and satellites, and their crunching by computer models. Packaged with copious imagery, Douglas' advice is a comforting source for readers wanting to prepare for the next thunderstorm, tornado, or hurricane. --Gilbert Taylor Copyright 2006 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
