The Encyclopedia of Weather and Climate Change: A Complete Visual Guide
This heavily illustrated volume is packed with more than 3,000 color photographs, maps, and diagrams, complemented by concise explanations regarding the world’s weather and climate. It is divided into six sections, each written by a different expert. “Engine” explains what weather is and how winds and ocean conditions affect our planet’s weather. “Action” looks at water, clouds, precipitation, and optical effects. “Extremes” discusses thunderstorms, tornadoes, hurricanes, blizzards, droughts, and more. “Watching” examines the history of meteorology and how weather today is mapped and forecasted. More than half the book’s content can be found in the last two sections, “Climate” and “Change.” “Climate” outlines the various climate zones as well as regional climate information. The final section, “Change,” covers the history of climate change, natural patterns, human factors, how climate change is threatening life on earth, and suggestions for reversing these trends.   Each section is broken into chapters. Following an introduction, each chapter has several entries, generally two pages in length, covering individual topics (for example, Tornado structure, Tornado climatology) and containing fact files, locator maps, charts, diagrams, photographs, and more. Special features called “Insights” look at certain topics (for example, Notable tornadoes) in more depth. Recommended for high-school and public libraries. --Robyn Rosenberg