Synopsis

Imagine standing at the center of a Roman coliseum that is 20 miles across, with walls that soar 10 miles into the sky, towering walls with cascades of ice crystals falling along its brilliantly white surface. That's what it's like to stand in the eye of a hurricane.
In Divine Wind, Kerry Emanuel, one of the world's leading authorities on hurricanes, gives us an engaging account of these awe-inspiring meteorological events, revealing how hurricanes and typhoons have literally altered human history, thwarting military incursions and changing the course of explorations. Offering an account of the physics of the tropical atmosphere, the author explains how such benign climates give rise to the most powerful storms in the world and tells what modern science has learned about them. Interwoven with this scientific account are descriptions of some of the most important hurricanes in history and relevant works of art and literature. For instance, he describes the 17th-century hurricane that likely inspired Shakespeare's The Tempest and that led to the British colonization of Bermuda. We also read about the Galveston Hurricane of 1900, by far the worst natural calamity in U.S. history, with a death toll between 8,000 and 12,000 that exceeded the San Francisco earthquake, the Johnstown Flood, and the Okeechobee Hurricane co Boasting more than one hundred color illustrations, frommbined. Boasting more than one hundred color illustrations, from ultra-modern Doppler imagery to classic paintings by Winslow Homer, Divine Wind captures the profound effects that hurricanes have had on humanity. Its fascinating blend of history, science, and art will appeal to weather junkies, science buffs, and everyone who read Isaac's Storm.

Library Journal

In this scholarly work, climatologist Emanuel (earth, atmospheric, & planetary science, MIT; Atmospheric Convection) not only emphasizes the scientific understanding of hurricanes but also considers them from a historical and artistic perspective. The technical chapters on the genesis, development, and demise of tropical storms are textbook dry and require considerable familiarity with graphs and equations. Readers who find the science rough going can flip to the chapters presenting concise, restrained accounts of some 15 significant storms. These span the historical and geographical gamut, from the 13th-century typhoons (kamikaze or "divine wind") that thwarted Kublai Kahn's invasions of Japan to Hurricane Andrew, the most costly single storm to hit the United States (until Katrina struck New Orleans and the Gulf Coast on Aug. 29, 2005). Artistic and literary depictions of storms precede each chapter, and the more than 100 color illustrations include Doppler imagery and paintings by Winslow Homer. While too sober to appeal to disaster enthusiasts, this book could be useful to readers who want more science than is presented in Pete Davies's Inside the Hurricane: Face to Face with Nature's Deadliest Storms or Bob Sheets and Jack Williams's Hurricane Watch: Forecasting the Deadliest Storms on Earth. Recommended for academic and large public libraries.-Nancy R. Curtis, Univ. of Maine Lib., Orono Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

Biography

Kerry Emanuel is Professor of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Science at MIT. His writings have appeared in American Scientist and Nature, among other publications.