Warnings: The True Story of How Science Tamed the Weather by Mike Smith " Warnings: The True Story of How Science Tamed the Weather " is a fantastic book that captures the evolution of meteorology through the personal accounts of Mike Smith. Like the perfect storm in which converging elements collide, this book is part memoir, part science and all real. This wonderful 304 page-book is composed of the following twenty-three chapters: 1. The Ruskin Heights Tornado, 2. No One Ever Knew it Was Comin...

A description of the development of American severe weather warning systems focusing on tornados, but covering also the reception and integration of Fujita's downburst theories and including what reads as a fairly lengthy but not particularly informative aside on hurricane forecasting, relating specifically (and almost exclusively) to 1992's hurricane Andrew and the Katrina catastrophe of 2005.Smith's history seldom reaches farther back than 1948, but this is because the volume is also someth

I don't think I would have found this as interesting if I hadn't moved from the mountain west (with its relatively mild weather) to the midwest (with frequent severe storms and tornado warnings). It helps that my daughter is fascinated by tornadoes/weather and includes storm chaser/meteorologist on her what-I-want-to-be list. I was fascinated by how the weather warning system, which I have taken for granted (and will no longer), developed over the last 65 years. The warnings and watches that are...

So good! Surprisingly, a page turner.I expected this book to be interesting. But I didn’t expect it to be such a page turner. I couldn’t put it down. The writing is excellent. It has a good pace and kept me coming back for more. I love reading about weather, but I can’t say too many meteorology books have had me up in the middle of the night saying “just one more chapter!” This one did. The specific storm stories weave together the topics perfectly. I want to deliver a free copy to anyone who sn...

A great read from cover to cover, brimming with Tornado knowledge and dispelling the myths born in Hollywood blockbusters (you know which one). Biggest disappointment and myth confirmation, is that the government forbid warning localities about severe weather (Tornados).. now every end of the world movie/novel where the population isn't told about an A/B/C extinction level event seems a little more real. As a Jackson County long-time resident, and having talked to Ruskin survivors I was enthrall...

This one was a good read. It got a little tiresome with the author tooting his own horn throughout the book. But other than that I thought it was a good balance of weather, science, and politics.

I’ve been a bit of a weather nerd since I was a kid. One of the first things I ever wanted to be when I grew up was a tornado chaser (still working on that one!) So I was eager to read Warnings by Mike Smith. I wasn’t disappointed! It’s a fascinating history not just of the development of the severe weather warning systems in the U.S., but also of the general advancement of meteorology over the past half century+.A word about the author: I’d heard the name Mike Smith before. He’s a pretty big de...

Oh, I love a good weather book. The information was not new to me -- having read it Nancy Mathis' Storm Warning -- but it still stuns me to know that it was forbidden to warn of tornadoes pretty much until the 1960s. Especially with the hysteria some of the local news outlets whip up today! But I certainly appreciate the development of radar technology. When I was a kid, one of the tornadoes of the 1974 Super Outbreak passed within a few miles of our house. We had no clue. Going back and studyin...

An enjoyable and fascinating book that details the evolution of meteorology and forecasting over the past 70 years. It truly gave me a new appreciation for the good work done behind the scenes and taken for granted in this field that has reduced the loss of life and property both on the ground and in the aviation world due to advances in technology and communication processes. Smith also showed how no amount of technology can compensate for the bureaucracy and incompetence of the government in s...

Great Historical RecapThe author did a wonderful job in describing the advances of meteorological technologies and the hurdles that science had dealt with over bureaucratically politics. These advances were described through various storm events throughout the book. The book is easily readable and very informative. It is a keeper for my library. Great job.

Mike Smith does an excellent job of walking the reader through the history (and progress) of the National Weather Service in Warnings: The True Story of How Science Tamed the Weather. Smith incorporates a number of first-hand severe weather accounts dating back to the mid-1950s, which allows the book to read more like a story than a series of weather reports. Based on Smith’s meteorological experience and accomplishments (sold his company AccuWeather in 2006), he does a fair amount of self-promo...

I picked this book up a decade ago when I was working on a journal piece dealing with storm shelter access in tornado-vulnerable regions of the country. While I used it for my research, I never sat down and just read it from cover to cover with no need. May 3, a date personal to me and my history with weather, came around, and I picked the book up to read in its entirety and in the order presented. All in all, I enjoyed the ride. While there are some moments in the middle where the science on da...

When I first requested this book for review, little did I know I would be reading it and beginning my review amidst forest fires, smoky air, and strong wind gusts! My interest in requesting the book is twofold: I recall Hurricane Frieda roaring through Vancouver, BC (my home) in 1962, extremely rare for that area; my Dad's cousin, TV weatherman in Portland, OR, first to recognize and forecast it, spent the night updating on air. Weather has always fascinated me, not only because "everybody talks...

I was surprised to learn that the Weather Bureau (now the National Weather Service) refused to issue tornado warnings as late as the 1950s so as not to scare people unnecessarily. That seems ridiculous today with constant live reports from tv weathermen, upgraded polarization Dopplar radars, satellite imagery that can pinpoint a tornado's thought process and more.But that was the case, and Mike Smith was on the forefront of changing that practice. His book is an excellent history of tornadoes an...

I have a warning before you read Warnings: if you are not highly interested in severe weather--particularly tornadoes--this book is probably not for you! I will be teaching a unit we call Masters of Disaster next school year so I happen to be interested in all things drastic weather right now, so this was a fun start to my immersion in this topic.

Disappointingly little science for what I was expecting, but interesting nonetheless.

Primarily the story of how the tornado warning system came to be, including the author's participation as a TV weather guy and then founder of a private weather service. And when he sticks to that, it's good stuff.Periodically, there's these sort of anti-government zingers that just hit me the wrong way, although I can see where they come from, given his experience. Also, the last quarter of the book (except for the last chapter) goes into great detail about hurricanes (specifically Andrew & Kat...

I love reading books about the weather, and there are several great books out there about grand-scale disasters that shape us. Warnings looks at these storms through the lens of a meteorologist dedicated to predicting storms. Mike Smith shows us how these major storms have shaped our understanding of the science of weather, as well as how our growing understanding of weather shaped our ability to warn citizens, plan for disaster, and ultimately save lives. It is also a history of the meteorologi...

As someone who appreciates the sciences and those who devote themselves to its practice, "Warnings" helped me to understand just how much I underappreciate the science of meteorology. The book opens with a visceral account of a deadly train derailment on Amtrak's Vermonter line in 2005 when the tracks are washed out due to a flash flood. While reading this passage, I thought to myself, wait a second, I used to regularly ride Amtrak's Vermonter line back in 2005. Why didn't I know about this acci...

As a life-long resident Tornado Alley, I found this book gripping and fascinating. I read it last year before all our horrible tornadoes this spring, and I can only wonder what the death toll would have been without the warning system we have in place now. I was especially dumbfounded at how long it took for the tornado warning system to be developed--the first city wide alarm was in the late 1960's! The US Weather Service kept weather forecasters from giving tornado warnings because they though...