By Lee Sandlin
With sixteen pages of black-and-white illustrations
From the acclaimed writer of depraved River comes hurricane Kings, a riveting story of supercell tornadoes and the quirky, pioneering, weather-obsessed scientists whose discoveries created the technological know-how of contemporary meteorology.
whereas tornadoes have sometimes been noticed somewhere else, in basic terms the crucial plains of North the US have the ideal stipulations for his or her construction. For the early settlers the sight of a funnel cloud used to be an unearthly occasion. They known as it the "Storm King," and their descriptions bordered at the supernatural: it glowed eco-friendly or pink, it whistled or moaned or sang. In hurricane Kings, Lee Sandlin explores America's fascination with and distinct dating to tornadoes. From Ben Franklin's early experiments to the "great typhoon war" of the 19th century to heartland lifestyles within the early 20th century, Sandlin re-creates with vibrant descriptions essentially the most devastating storms in America's heritage, together with the Tri-state twister of 1925 and the Peshtigo "fire tornado," whose lethal course of destruction used to be left encased in glass.
Drawing on memoirs, letters, eyewitness tales, and information, Sandlin brings to existence the forgotten characters and scientists who replaced a nation--including James Espy, America's first meteorologist, and Colonel John Park Finley, who helped position a community of climate "spotters" around the kingdom. alongside the way in which, Sandlin information the little-known yet interesting historical past of the nationwide climate carrier, paints a shiny photograph of the early Midwest, and indicates how successive generations got here to appreciate, and at last coexist with, the spiraling threat which may erase lives and entire cities in an instant.
From the Hardcover edition.
Read Online or Download Storm Kings: The Untold History of America's First Tornado Chasers PDF
Similar nature books
Mycophilia: Revelations from the Weird World of Mushrooms
An exceptionally flexible cooking factor containing an abundance of supplementations, minerals, and possibly
cancer-fighting houses, mushrooms are one of the most costly and sought-after meals on the
planet. but in terms of fungi, culinary makes use of are just the top of the iceberg. all through heritage fungus has been prized for its varied properties—medicinal, ecological, even recreational—and has
spawned its personal quirky way of life devoted to exploring the unusual biology and celebrating the original function it performs on the earth. In Mycophilia, complete foodstuff author and cookbook writer Eugenia Bone examines the function of fungi as unique delicacy, healing, poison, and hallucinogen, and finally discovers better knowing of fungi is essential to dealing with many demanding situations of the twenty first century.
Engrossing, unbelievable, and full of up to date technology and cultural exploration, Mycophilia is an element narrative and half primer for foodies, technological know-how buffs, environmental advocates, and somebody attracted to studying much approximately one of many least understood and such a lot curious organisms in nature.
In cooperation with the Mauritian executive, Gerald Durrell and his group visited the island to assist rescue the various swiftly dwindling fauna from virtually convinced extinction. This booklet recounts their makes an attempt.
The Guide to Colorado Reptiles and Amphibians
Nature author Mary Taylor Young's newest box consultant can help you find and examine extra approximately Colorado's local reptiles and amphibians. overlaying seventy-two species of turtles, toads, salamanders, snakes, and lizards, The advisor to Colorado Reptiles and Amphibians explores herptiles via special descriptions and informative sidebars.
Evolving Nature of the English Language: Studies in Theoretical and Applied Linguistics
This quantity provides a suite of interdisciplinary papers concerning the main thought-provoking difficulties within the parts of either theoretical and utilized linguistics. The individuals specialise in modern advancements in morphological, semantic and pragmatic theorizing. The contributions also are dedicated to a number of points of the technique of training English in addition to a few intricacies of translation.
- Over the Edge: Death in Grand Canyon
- Donkey (Animal)
- The Perfect Storm: A True Story of Men Against the Sea
- The Hedgerows Heaped with May: The Telegraph Book of the Countryside
- Men's Lives
Additional resources for Storm Kings: The Untold History of America's First Tornado Chasers
Sample text
5 log φ2 . 4(m1 −m2 ) . 1 illustrates the correspondence between magnitude differences and brightness ratios. 1. 75 2. 1. 51 2. 5 10. 5 100 10 10 000 By convention, at all wavelengths, magnitude 0 has been attributed to the bright star Vega (a blue main-sequence star of spectral type A0). Objects brighter than Vega (Sun, bright planets) have negative magnitudes. Accurate photometry is accomplished with photoelectric and solid-state devices and filters which accept only certain wavelength bands. 1).
Astronomical Observations tion, mirror edges and spider, from a slightly different angle on the two sides of the chop. This results in a residual background variation which limits the accuracy of the background subtraction. To remove this residual background difference, which is stable over time scales of minutes, one must repoint the telescope as a whole. This is the socalled “beam-switching” or “nodding” technique. This operation needs to be done often enough, usually on the order of 60 seconds, to eliminate telescope thermal variations.
In the visible, extinction is only about 10–15%, but the atmosphere becomes opaque below 300 nm due to the ozone layer, which is at an altitude of about 20 to 30 km. 35 µm, there are some absorption bands caused by water vapor and oxygen, but the atmosphere is never completely opaque. 3 µm, there begin to occur absorption bands where the atmosphere is completely opaque, especially at low-altitude sites. The transparent wavelength regions (windows), which cor- 10 1. Astronomical Observations Transmission (%) 100 80 L I J N H K M 60 40 20 0 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 Wavelength ( m) Fig.