Books on severe WX

[Brian A. Schmidt]

I'm trying to find some good books to get me started in storm chasing. I am going to be taking my first spotter course in a few weeks, but I would also like to find some books on the basics of severe weather and the anatomy & physiology of tornadoes. A while back, someone on this board mentioned a couple of books that were "mandatory" reading for beginning stormchasers. If anyone can recommend some titles I'd sure appreciate it. Thanks.

 

[Greg Campbell]

I'm trying to find some good books to get me started in storm chasing. I am going to be taking my first spotter course in a few weeks, but I would also like to find some books on the basics of severe weather and the anatomy & physiology of tornadoes. A while back, someone on this board mentioned a couple of books that were "mandatory" reading for beginning stormchasers. If anyone can recommend some titles I'd sure appreciate it. Thanks.
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Our very own Tim Vasquez has published a few decent reads. B)

http://www.weathergraphics.com/fcstbook/
Starts with the basics and progresses to cover most anything a chaser will need to know about meteorology, serving up college level information and theory. I bought a copy in Denver and have been poring over it since. Excellent.

and

http://www.weathergraphics.com/chasing/
A bit less technical - a broad chasing guide that touches on everything you'd need to know about chasing big weather. (This is my 2 minute impression. Having already purchased gobs of CDs, DVDs, and books at Denver, I was running low on funds and 'had' to choose between this or the above book. I should have bit the bullet and bought both.)

I haven't yet popped for Tim Marshall's "25 YEARS OF STORM TRACK" CD. It's marginaly spendy, but no doubt worth every penny. The old ST magazine was fantastic - featuring chase tips, weather analysis, equipment reviews, amusing chaser art/cartoons by David Hoadley, and much, much more.
http://www.stormtrack.org/shop/

-Greg

 

[Mike Gauldin]

I also just ordered Tim's Forecasting book. There's also a lot of online sources to help get you started with some basics.

These are some helpful spotter guides. A lot of the material is covered in Skywarn training sessions.

NOAA's Basic Spotters' Field Guide (.PDF)

NOAA's Advanced Spotters' Field Guide (.PDF)

NWS Storm Spotter Training (.ZIP - 24MB) - HTML slide show.

Online Spotter Training - Online Guides for Beginner, Advanced, and Chasing.

These are some links to sites with helpful educational material to teach the basics of weather. WW2010 is pretty cool, as it's a step-by-step guide.

Weather Prediction Education - Touches on just about everything.

WW2010 - University of Illinois Weather World Project with tons of online guides and weather information.

Glossaries for looking up terms.

Storm Wiki - A Wiki Style weather glossary.

NOAA Glossary of Terms for Storm Spotters

 

[Kurt Silvey]

I recently picked up a copy of Howard Bluestein’s “Tornado Alley – Monster storms of the great plains” on EBay. I would recommend this to anyone with an interest in severe weather. It is kind of hard to find. I think I had the automatic search feature looking for this book for about 8 months.

 

[Brian A. Schmidt]

Thanks All. I will look into your recommendations. I have some of the basics down although I need to work towards understanding the tech talk that pops up from time to time on this board.

 

[Mike Gauldin]

Thanks All. I will look into your recommendations. I have some of the basics down although I need to work towards understanding the tech talk that pops up from time to time on this board.
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That's one of the problems with chasing. There's very little in 'intermediate' level subject. Once you get past all of the basics, it seems like it jumps to degree-level information/discussion. But it all comes in time. I plan on getting a few upper-level text books when I can afford them and see how well I remember physics and chemistry

 

[mikegeukes]

AMS has 2 good books:

Mesoscale Meteorology and Forecasting
by Peter S. Ray (Editor)

Severe Convective Storms
Edited by Charles A. Doswell III

Mike

 

[Bryce Stone]

Don't forget your history!

The Tornado

Thomas P. Grazulis

I imagine quite a few storm chasers own or have read this one.

 

[Patrick McMahon]

I'm trying to find some good books to get me started in storm chasing. I am going to be taking my first spotter course in a few weeks, but I would also like to find some books on the basics of severe weather and the anatomy & physiology of tornadoes. A while back, someone on this board mentioned a couple of books that were "mandatory" reading for beginning stormchasers. If anyone can recommend some titles I'd sure appreciate it. Thanks.
[/b]

Thunderstorm Morphology and Dynamics
Edited by Ed Kessler

I picked this up about 10 years ago-not sure if its still in print. Had to read through some sections more than once, skipped the scary (to me) math equation-heavy sections altogether. Still a lot there for the layperson--better yet if you have some basic understanding of science.