Review: Extreme Weather Magazine

I ordered a copy of Extreme Weather, a new magazine from the folks who publish Astronomy Magazine. The cover features the famous Eric Nguyen photograph of the 2004 Mulvane, Kansas tornado as it literally obliterated a house.

One of the feature stories is by famed storm chaser Warren Faidley, who was chasing on May 4, 2007, the night of the horrible EF5 tornado that devastated the town of Greensburg, Kansas. He couldn’t catch up to the supercell that produced the Greensburg tornado, so he broke off at Woodward, Oklahoma.

There is an article that summarizes some of the research regarding climate change and hurricane intensity. It mostly quotes the work of Kevin Trenberth of NCAR and Kerry Emanuel at MIT. Robert Hanson penned an article on climate change.

There is an excellent article on lightning. It points out that Alabama ranks 7th in lightning deaths, based on fatalities from 1997-2006. The state recorded sixteen deaths from lightning strikes during that time period.

There are excellent graphical maps on temperature extremes and precipitation records. I always enjoy those, since I am a self-professed weather historian. One fact on the wettest and driest page is incorrect however. It attributes the all time North American annual snowfall record to Paradise Ranger Station on Mount Rainier in Washington in 1971-72. The record was broken in the 1998-99 snowfall season when 1,140 inches fell on Mount Baker, also in Washington State.

There are other excellent articles on supercell thunderstorms, satellites and the Galveston Hurricane of 1900. Another article details twelve weather myths that we have all heard all of our lives. Finally, there is a good reading list, glossary and beautiful photo gallery of impressive weather images.

Get your copy by going to https://www.extremeweathermag.com/ext/default.aspx.

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