The Science of Extreme Weather

By: Eric R. Snodgrass, The Great Courses

Narrated by: Eric R. Snodgrass

Length: 12 hrs and 55 mins

Publisher's summary

Thanks to an ongoing revolution in the science of meteorology, we can now understand how extreme weather conditions arise, produce far more accurate forecasts, and know how to protect ourselves when dangerous conditions develop. The Science of Extreme Weather is your field guide to the worst that Earth’s atmosphere can inflict.

In 24 exciting, informative, and potentially life-saving half-hour lectures aimed at weather novices and amateur forecasters alike, you gain a surprisingly powerful tool in the face of such overwhelming forces: knowledge. Even as the population of the globe continues to increase, fewer and fewer people are dying from extreme weather. The credit goes to improved forecasting tools along with more accurate computer models that weigh the countless data points that represent the ever-changing atmosphere. As a result, it is rare for a severe weather event to catch meteorologists by surprise.

Guided by meteorologist, storm chaser, and award-winning teacher Eric R. Snodgrass, you learn the fundamental science that underlies blizzards, flash floods, hurricanes, tornadoes, heat waves, and more. You’ll come away with newfound appreciation and respect for weather’s most awe-inspiring phenomena.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2016 The Great Courses (P)2016 The Teaching Company, LLC

Fascinating and fun!

Great information and presentation! Increased my fascination with the world we live in. Highly recommend this work for anyone that is trying to better understand the conditions that lead to extreme weather events.

Not for audio and perhaps not for a science course

As many other reviewers have pointed out, this book is meant as a video presentation. Without the numerous images to which that the professor talks, the quality of the course is affected significantly. I have listened to a large number of "The Great Courses" from Audible, and the vast majority of them work well without visuals, but it is surprising that somebody decided this course would be a good product for listening only. I was surprised when I saw the title, wondering how the material would be presented without heavy use of visuals, only to find that, apparently, the material was not intended to be heard alone. On "The Great Courses" site the course is only available in video format, so why does audible.com distribute it in this format?

Notwithstanding the limitations of the audio-only format, the lecturer certainly cannot be criticised for lack of enthusiasm. He is clearly passionate and knowledgable about his subject, and his excitement about sharing his interests pervades every single sentence. However, his enthusiasm goes just a little too far sometimes. For example, the over-abundance of emotive language in what is meant to be a science course gave me the sense that I was not always getting a balanced perspective. I was frequently asking myself whether some of the statistics of impacts he was quoting were deliberately chosen because they were the upper-level estimates. His choice of adjectives seemed intended to elicit a sense of awe rather than to promote understanding. Similarly, the presentation style leans a little too heavily towards popular entertainment rather than towards education, so that the occasional dips into more technical language and explanation seem a little incongruous.

The repeated disclaimers at the end of each lecture are sufficiently irritating to be mentioned by yet another reviewer.

Needs better coverages in PDF FILE.

what you had us looking at on pdf files was missing a lot of information. I got some out of this story but needs a lot of pictures to see what you were talking about.

Education and Interesting

I very much enjoyed listening to these lectures. I do agree with some of the other reviewers in that the visual aids would have elevated my enjoyment, however I was able to follow along comfortably even without them.

The narrator was engaging and definitely knowledgeable and I enjoyed listening to him.

Overall I enjoyed learning about a subject I'm interested in.

Really wish I had the video

It was very interesting and informative, but so much of it relied on there being video instead of just audio, and it was frustrating.

Interesting Material

Such a fascinating subject, but as noted in previous reviews, the presentation was curious, even bizarre at times. Definitely not up to the usual Great Courses standard. The Professor obviously is passionate about the subject, and was enjoyable to listen to.

Good beginner information, horrible recording

I enjoyed listing to the lectures, although they did not cover the science behind the events in good detail. I did not learn anything I wasn't aware of already. The recording was horrible. between every lector a message about storm chasing is dangerous keep playing., I found this to be extremely annoying. From hearing this recording, I will not spend money on "The great courses" The are mediocre at best

Excellent overall

This course was excellent, informative and fun. The only bummer was that while charts and graphs were in the pdf there was no way to see the animations. I could figure out what they must look like from the descriptions but access to them would have been nice.

interesting, detailed and approachable

The lectures bring the science of weather to a broad audience without losing detail. Global weather patterns and micro weather are described.

warning before every chapter and constant images

stupid repetition of a legal warning. plus instructor constantly refers to charts, radar, and images. not a great audio course.