Having read and reviewed many regional weather and climate books over the past few years, I have come to the conclusion most fit into one of two styles: the academic and the personal. The academic style weighs heavy on the scientific material with little personal comment, and the personal style uses data and science only to fill in the descriptive material. Both, along with the occasional hybrid academic/personal mix, are valid and interesting methods of describing local conditions when done right.
New England Weather, New England Climate by Gregory A. Zielinski and Barry D. Keim fits clearly into the former style. Without going back and re-reading it, I don't recall many personal insights to New England weather and climate by the authors who are well familiar with the region as they are the state climatologists of Maine and New Hampshire, respectively, and teach at their state's university.
New Englanders, it is said, talk more about their weather than any other subject. I have read that statement attributed to many other regions as well (along with the saying: "If you don't like the weather, wait ten minutes"), but I would give New Englanders the nod any day. Residents of a place crossed by so many storm tracks and with such variable topography must find weather a rich topic for conversation and argument.
Zielinski and Keim cite David Ludlam's earlier book The Country Journal: New England Weather Book as the best effort to date describing New England weather and climate and write their book to update the material. The two books are quite different in many respects (besides the updating of new material from the last quarter century), and I am pleased to have both on my library shelf. The authors do not get as deep into the history of weather events in New England as Ludlam, who made weather history a true focus of study. If Ludlam's book was easily accessible today, I would not hold this as the major disappointment of the current book. And while I realize that you have to stop somewhere, I often wanted more detail on specific weather events than Zielinski and Keim provided. I also almost made it through the book before my old rant of use of degrees Fahrenheit rather than Fahrenheit degrees when discussing temperature changes surfaced, the only technical inaccuracy I could find.
New England Weather, New England Climate, however, provided me with many more likes than dislikes. I was especially fond of their treatment of New England seasons. Rather than sticking to the "official" four, they defined local seasons as New Englanders actually experience them — ski season, mud season, beach and lake season, and foliage season. I also greatly enjoyed their interspersing the text with snippets of Mark Twain's hilarious dinner speech on New England Climate (which Ludlam provides in its entirety).
The authors offer us a comprehensive explanation of New England's weather and climate, supported by a flurry of stories and shower of lore. They ably discuss past and future climate patterns that have and will continue to mold the character of New England and New Englanders.
New England Weather, New England Climate is an in-depth, accessible guide to New England's weather and climate that will interest all with an interest in weather/climate, New England, or both. The author's have done a first-rate job in bringing New England conditions to those of us not able to experience them directly. This book deserves a place on every climatologist's bookshelf.
Weather Doctor's Book Review: New England Weather New England Climate ©2003, Keith C. Heidorn, PhD. All Rights Reserved.
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