Weather: Air Masses, Clouds, Rainfall, Storms, Weather Maps, Climate

I bought this book 5 years ago from a hurricane gift shop in Galveston, TX. After setting up a weather station in my backyard. I turn to this book. I love the details on everything. When i need to know anything about the current weather this is the book i go for.

I purchased this book for, I think, $1.50 in paperback way back in about 1967. I was a budding meteorologist then and this was about the only book that I could find on the topic. I loved it! Even then it was a bit dated, but this book contains so much info for a young mind. As the years went by I purchased others in the series - Geology, Spiders, etc. The Weather book, though...I still have my copy, although the binding gave way long ago. It is in a sandwich bag in my library, and I still look at it every now and again and wow! does it take me back. That book helped cement my choice of career and even though newer and brighter books are out, nothing can replace this one for sheer amount of content.

I read this book during a rainy spring weekend. It gives a good understanding of meteorology and clouds, developing everything clearly. I have since taken several meteorology courses and read numerous books about the weather, but nothing has ever explained things as well or as simply as this book did. This book is filled with full-color illustrations, distinguishing it from most other books that just have black and white illustrations.

This was one of the original Golden Guides done back in the 50's, along with The Stars, Rocks and Minerals, Birds, North American Trees, and some others. I collected and read just about all of these and it's surprising how much info they got into these little books. Each book is exactly 160 pages, if I remember right. Thus, they have a fixed format, so they have to be very careful about what they select for material since it all has to fit.These books sold for 75 cents or 95 cents originally. They were great little educational tools when I was a schoolboy, and I could still read them with profit many years later.The more specialized ones, such as Pond Life, Structural Geology, The Heart, Insect Pests, Spiders and Their Kin, Mushrooms and Non-Vascular plants, were also very good.

It is small. It is well illustrated. It is simple. It is comprehensive. It is correct, almost no errors and no "over simplifications." If you are a CEO, a student, or a child over 10 and interested in understanding weather, this well organized and concise book is a good place to start.