Furthermore: Where the Headlines Take You

Stormy Weather

Our unusually cold and stormy weather is surely the biggest local news story today, yesterday, and maybe even tomorrow. Meteorologists are saying that this storm is notable because it is among the first to be accurately forecast by computer models.

Snow and ice or not, Portlanders talk about the weather a lot (actually I suspect people everywhere talk about the weather a lot!). But, would you expect to find a really interesting, readable book about the weather? Perhaps not. But I'd say the anticipation, drama, joy, and potential violence of our experience of weather is especially suited to building a stirring narrative – and lucky for you, dear readers, I have encountered several interesting, readable books about weather! Here are some of my favorites:

First, an amusing and educational little volume: Lewis & Clark's Northwest Journey: "Weather Disagreeable!" Meteorologist George R. Miller presents a series of weather-related quotes from the journals of members of the Corps of Discovery, and explains the science behind the weather they describe. Miller's commentary is engaging, but his straightforward discussion of the factors that create specific kinds of weather events in the Pacific Northwest is the highlight of the book. It's an interesting combination of topics!

For those of you who want to know even more about exactly why and how the weather works the way it does in the Pacific Northwest, George R. Miller's earlier book, Pacific Northwest Weather: But My Barometer Says Fair! should be just the ticket. Miller explains inversions, urban heat islands, factors that influence river and stream flooding, and many other details of our region's weather facts, figures and oddities.

Brian Fagan's The Long Summer: How Climate Changed Civilization isn't really about weather, it's about climate – the larger pattern of weather trends over time. Fagan's premise is that when people were faced with the large-scale climate changes that took place at the close of the last ice age, they used their big human brains to make changes – inventing agriculture, irrigation, cities, etc. This made them more resilient to short-term weather variations (because, for example, they now had a surplus of food), but at the same time, they were more vulnerable to the catastrophic weather and climate events that occurred less frequently (because, to follow the same example, dramatic weather could destroy the complex innovations that had originally created the surplus.) The Long Summer is a fascinating history, and it provides some interesting insight into the possibilities for our future as well. Fagan's other books on climate are worth a read too: Floods, Famines, and Emperors, about El Niño; and The Little Ice Age, about the cold period in Europe between 1300 and 1850.