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Warnings: The True Story of How Science Tamed the Weather

April 30, 2010; 6:09 AM

UPDATE: Mike has done a new video where he talks about the inspiration for his book.

Today is my first of two annual yard sales, so I will not be blogging until late Saturday or Sunday. What I will be doing during my downtime in a lawn chair is reading "Warnings: The True Story of How Science Tamed the Weather" by Mike Smith, CEO of WeatherData, and AccuWeather company. As of Saturday, you can buy the book on Amazon, AccuMall.com, and in bookstores. You can read reviews of the book on Mike's website. The book even has a multimedia online companion website!

Mike came to AccuWeather HQ yesterday to give a talk entitled "Miracle at Greensburg." In this talk, he compared the 2007 Greensburg, Kansas tornado which killed 11 people, to the 1955 Udall, Kansas tornado, which was the deadliest tornado to ever hit Kansas, killing over 100 during its duration. Although the storms were nearly identical, many lives were saved in 2007; Mike says that the government, media and private meteorologists literally "saved the town" at Greensburg.

Although clearly the devastation at Greensburg helped inspire his book, he was already writing it at that time after being inspired by the Hurricane Katrina disaster in 2005. Even though I haven't finished the book yet, the reviews speak for themselves. You will be getting an "inside look" at meteorology in the United States unlike any other. To quote Mike about his book:

"A non-fiction book written in the style of a novel, it tells the story of how the storm warning system came to be and how it saves so many lives. In the course of writing the book, I learned weather science has been more effective at saving lives (on a per capita basis) than cardiology, cancer research, or traffic safety and at a tiny fraction of the cost."

Did you know?

* Tornado deaths have been cut by 94% in the last 50 years?

* What really went wrong in Hurricane Katrina and why it could happen again?

* That wind shear-caused airline crashes have been eliminated due to the dedication of a single talented scientist who bucked the scientific "consensus" - and saved thousands of lives?

So that's what I'll be reading this weekend. Pick it up at the bookstores and if you write a review yourself, leave me a Comment and I'll link to it.

The views expressed are those of the author and not necessarily those of AccuWeather, Inc. or AccuWeather.com