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FIVE BEST
When You're Snowed In
These books about weather truly shine.

BY CHRISTOPHER C. BURT
Saturday, November 4, 2006 12:01 a.m.

1. The Elements Rage by Frank W. Lane (Chilton, 1965).

What interests most people about weather (as opposed to climate--"Climate lasts all the time and weather only a few days," as Mark Twain put it) is its extremes and curious phenomena. Frank Lane clearly had that in mind in the early 1960s when he undertook writing "The Elements Rage." Even if the science here is out of date, the drama of the stories never grows old. The book offers dozens of extraordinary black-and-white photographs and a fact-packed text, rich in anecdotes on matters well beyond meteorology--earthquakes, tsunamis, avalanches, volcanoes. As an inspiration toward appreciating how strange the natural world can be, the book set a standard that others, including myself, have attempted to emulate.

2. USA Today: The Weather Book by Jack Williams (Random House, 1992).

USA Today's weather page is without peer. No surprise, then, that one of the page's creators, Jack Williams, has put together the most graphically appealing and instructive book on American weather on the market today (I prefer the second edition, published by Vintage in 1997). It does a superb job of explaining meteorological principles for the general public and of laying out how weather systems work. Even if you're already familiar with the subject, there are enough other weather-related factoids (in the true USA Today tradition) to entertain the most knowledgeable of weather geeks.

3. Divine Wind by Kerry Emanuel (Oxford, 2005).

I'm not sure if there has ever been a book that integrated weather with art, literature and science so effectively as "Divine Wind." Kerry Emanuel, an eminent earth scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, brings these disciplines together elegantly in this book about hurricanes. The science of hurricanes is covered in great detail, interspersed with exceptional illustrations, literary excerpts and case studies of some of the most infamous tropical storms on record. One chapter relates the remarkable story of a hurricane in 1609 that separated the British vessel Sea Venture from its Jamestown-bound fleet and wrecked it on the shores of Bermuda. Presumed lost for many months, the crew miraculously survived--news of which excited all of England, including William Shakespeare, who used the story as the basis of "The Tempest."

4. The Rough Guide To Weather by Robert Henson (Rough Guides, 2002).

How, you may ask, could a travel publisher produce one of the best books about weather? The logic is there of course: Nothing can torpedo a holiday more effectively than lousy weather. But this book goes well beyond outlining what to expect weather-wise in Hawaii in December or Paris in July. It is a dense and informative treatise on global climate phenomena, and it explains how to interpret forecasts and climate models. The author, Robert Henson, is not only a meteorologist (at the National Center for Atmospheric Research) but also a lucid and engaging writer. As for the travel-guide aspect: Half the book is devoted to country-by-country climate descriptions and monthly weather data tables for more than 150 destinations. A terrific resource for both travelers and weather buffs.

5. Northeast Snowstorms by Paul J. Kocin and Louis W. Uccellini (American Meteorological Society, 2004).

If there were a gold standard for weather reference books, it would be the two-volume "Northeast Snowstorms." You may know Paul Kocin as the laconic "winter weather expert" who pops up on the Weather Channel whenever a blizzard is about to hit. Louis Uccellini is a senior official at the National Weather Service. Their book is scientific and not for everyone, but those who have the patience to dig through this compendium of Northeast snowstorm data will in short order be winter-weather experts themselves. It covers every snowstorm of any significance to affect the Mid-Atlantic and New England regions since the Blizzard of 1888, providing upper-air charts, snowfall maps and even satellite imagery for the more recent storms. It is an extraordinary reference work of any sort but a treasure for anyone who loves snowstorms or weather history.
Mr. Burt is the author of "Extreme Weather: A Guide and Record Book" (Norton).

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