Clark
(Meteorologist)
Thu Aug 26 2004 05:35 AM
Re: Books about Tropical Cyclones

Unfortunately...there is no de facto tropical meteorology textbook. A few dynamics books do contain material on tropical cyclones, however, and there are some other publications which may be of some help.

One in particular I can think of would be "An Introduction to Dynamic Meteorology" (4th edition; 2004) by James Holton. Unfortunately, he passed away earlier this year, but his text is the standard used by nearly every major university in covering dynamical meteorology and includes a chapter on tropical cyclones. Be warned though, it's not simple material by any means and without a background in the field, it may seem foreign. You can pick up a copy online or at most college bookstores that have a meteorology/atmospheric sciences department at the school.

On a slightly lower (and more specific) level is a publication of the World Meteorological Organization. The exact name escapes me, as I don't have a copy off-hand, but it is about 10 years old and is the closest thing to a tropical meteorology textbook there is today. Actually, the name of it is "Global Perspectives on Tropical Cyclones" -- despite being ten years old, it is still very, very useful and should cover most of what you are looking for. The problem is finding a copy -- as it is a WMO publication, you can't pick up a copy at a bookstore or online or anything. You can dig around the WMO page at http://www.wmo.ch/ for more details; I'm trying to get further information about ordering a copy, as I'm interested in having a copy myself (I know someone who has one, but it's on oblong sized paper (8.5"x14") and copying over 300 pages isn't the easiest thing to do) and will let you know if/when I find out anything more.

Hope this helps, at least some.



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