Tornado Hunter: Getting Inside the Most Violent Storms on Earth
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ISBN13: 9781426203022Condition: NEWNotes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
Product Description
Like the deadly tornadoes it documents, this potent combination of high adventure and hard science is terrifyingly timely in our era of global warming and climate change. The Weather Channel, now America's most watched programming, has in recent years shown us a relentless series of hurricanes, tsunamis, earthquakes, and eruptions killing thousands, turning millions into refugees, and leaving whole cities in shocked, shattered ruins.
Of nature's weapons, tornadoes are among the most unforgiving, and here's an unforgettable portrait of these storms and one extraordinary man who challenged themand produced the first-ever photographs snatched from a rampaging twister's black heart. Tornado chaser Tim Samaras, working with master storyteller Stefan Bechtel, author of Roar of the Heavens, has created a page-turner with narrative force and scientific substance.
In the first of five you-are-there accounts, Tornado Hunter opens with a moment-by-moment description of the 2003 catastrophe that engulfed Manchester, South Dakota. The authors evoke the doomed town and its people; the dark menacing funnel; and Samaras's fearless advance into the whirlwind’s core to deploy the ingenious equipment he devised. They interweave the tornado chaser's passion, the fascinating science of the storms themselves, and six decades of progress in predicting and recording their onslaughtan art beholden to Samaras's own groundbreaking inventions.
Tim Samaras's 2004 article in National Geographic became one of the most widely read in the magazine’s history. This powerful book is destined to blast its way onto bestseller lists everywhere.
Spotlight Customer Reviews:
Summary:
A gripping saga highly recommended for any general lending library
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Comment:
TORNADO HUNTER: GETTING INSIDE THE MOST VIOLENT STORMS ON EARTH is from a tornado chaser who works with a master storyteller to create a gripping story of the first person to photograph the inside of a tornado and survive. A moment-by-moment description of a 2003 tornado catastrophe accompanies details on the science of tornadoes and lends to a gripping saga highly recommended for any general lending library.
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Summary:
I wish this book had met an editor
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Comment:
I actually checked this book out of the library this week and began giving it a read. As a disaster junkie, I try to read every tome released and I will clearly say that while interesting, this book doesn't have the great storytelling of other disaster classics like Isaac's Storm or The Perfect Storm.
Tornado Hunter follows along/behind tornado hunter Tim Samaras and his band of merry mesocyclone hunters as they crisscross the plains on the path of severe weather. Some of the stories of actual chases are quite good and there are a couple that truly are edge-of-the-seat exciting, but throughout the book, Bechtel tells the same story over and over, even using the same hackneyed phrases. He describes the same equipment and the same scenes over and over, in case you missed them the first three times. (How many times can he compare a soggy dirt road to cake batter?)
And at times his somewhat stilted storytelling jumps from place to place and year to year in a way that's hard to determine where he's going or what path he'll go down next -- much like the storms he writes about.
And while I know that it's not uncommon for an author to solicit positive reviews for his work on Amazon, the fact that one reviewer appears to be a relative (if the same last name and same hometown are any clues), one appears to be a neighbor or other local friend, and one has only reviewed one book not by this author, their reviews are perhaps a bit questionable.
Not a bad book. Some interesting stories. Some interesting meteorological discussions. But it won't be up there with the truly great books of this genre.
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Summary:
"A great smoke-colored python"
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Comment:
"Tornado Hunter" is an insightful and comprehensive account of the pursuit of tornadoes by scientists and laymen, with special focus on the latter and the lengths they will go to experience and photograph them, whether for the rush of a dangerous encounter or some personal fulfillment. Bechtel traveled with and builds his account around Tim Samaras, a Colorado engineer and storm scientist, who has pioneered the practice of repeatedly placing small, instrumented "probes" in the path of tornadoes. Some of these seat-gripping encounters include sliding down poorly marked and muddy country roads, while filming, watching a map, and cell-phoning colleagues, as a deadly tornado bears down -- the very definition of stress multi-tasking.
While explaining how Tim got started and some of his fateful intercepts, Bechtel seamlessly weaves together dramatic accounts of close encounters by ordinary people, including fascinating stories about pioneering research scientists, such as the iconic Ted Fujita, U. of Chicago professor and world-class expert. The text expressively captures "the tornado...shape shifting into a great smoke-colored python, snaking up into the sky" or a "storm...so immense, it seemed to miniaturize the cattle, buildings and vehicles far below." Visiting the aftermath of total destruction at Greensburg, Kansas "seems to silence all comment. One feels like whispering, as if this were a church or an open grave..." After reading "Tornado Hunter," you will come to know what the fuss is all about and the difference between the few road warriors who take needless chances, and the many others who do it safely for love of the sky and the cloud castles that daily fill it with natural wonder. -- Dave Hoadley, Falls Church, Va
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Summary:
"You are there"
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Comment:
The effect of this book on me was that I found myself watching the clouds; in fact, one afternoon while I was reading it, these huge, dark "cloud towers" began developing overhead, just like the author was describing! So a warning: watch for tornadoes while you read this book; it seems to be psychically connected to atmospheric disturbances! The author's descriptions of tornado-chasing experiences with Tim Samaras and his "team" are vividly, really superbly written; the eye-witness accounts of seeing, or living through, tornadoes are memorable. The book also has a lot of very interesting scientific information, nicely integrated into the narrative. A very good read!
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Summary:
Dangerous encounters
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Comment:
I saw a tornado from a distance only once. It was menacing and terrifying: a pitch-black funnel-twister snaking down from ominous dark clouds. When I reached the place a mile away where it had touched-down briefly: trees, telephone wires, road signs, fences were in a tangled mess on the road. I simply can not imagine what it would be like to be really close to or even to chase a tornado. This book describes the adrenaline rush of being right there and experiencing the terror of the potential death and destruction these storms are capable of causing. Read this book in conjunction with the National Geographic show on storm-chaser Tim Samaras who is not a daredevil, but a remarkable scientist - and please read/watch in the comfort and security of your own home! Check out http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-K-z-mZ9Va4&feature=channel on UTube. Thanks to Charlottesville's Stefan Bechtel for his skill in bringing this story to life.
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