Editorial Review:
The Pacific Northwest experiences the most varied and fascinating weather in the United States, including world-record winter snows, the strongest non-tropical storms in the nation, and shifts from desert to rain forest in a matter of miles. Local weather features dominate the meteorological landscape, from the Puget Sound convergence zone and wind surges along the Washington Coast, to gap winds through the Columbia Gorge and the "Banana Belt" of southern Oregon. This book is the first comprehensive and authoritative guide to Northwest weather that is directed to the general reader; helpful to boaters, hikers, and skiers; and valuable to an expert meteorologist. In The Weather of the Pacific Northwest, University of Washington atmospheric scientist and popular radio commentator Cliff Mass unravels the intricacies of Northwest weather, from the mundane to the mystifying. By examining our legendary floods, snowstorms, and windstorms, and a wide variety of local weather features, Mass answers such interesting questions as: Why does the Northwest have localized rain shadows? What is the origin of the hurricane force winds that often buffet the region? Why does the Northwest have so few thunderstorms? What is the origin of the Pineapple Express? Why do ferryboats sometimes seem to float above the water's surface? Why is it so hard to predict Northwest weather? Mass brings together eyewitness accounts, historical records, and meteorological science to explain Pacific Northwest weather. He also considers possible local effects due to global warming. The final chapters guide readers in interpreting the Northwest sky and in securing weather information on their own.
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Customer Reviews
Average Customer Rating: 
Global Warming Seems to Date This Book  2008-12-13
I like this book a lot for its overview of why the weather of the Pacific Northwest has traditionally done what it has done, but with the continuing changes brought on by global warming, its not clear how much of this is going to remain true going forward. I would have liked a lot more dicussion about how global warming is changing things.
Delightful and Informative  2008-11-19
As a Northwest transplant, I've always wondered why the storms out here are so very different from those in the midwest. Mass explains all of this in an accessible, easy to understand way. The illustrations are gorgeous, and the full-color graphics help the reader under the mechanics and movement of weather. I love the discussion of the historical floods (including the whopper in December 2006 that felt of hurricane intensity) and the chapter on how to "forecast" the weather on your own. This is a truly great weather and climate book -- straightforward yet complex, sober in its science yet exciting in its practical immediacy. I've already bought an extra copy for a friend for Christmas who is a committed weather buff.
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