The Weather Machine: A Journey Inside the Forecast - Softcover

Blum, Andrew

Softcover

ISBN 10: 006236863X ISBN 13: 9780062368638

Publisher: Ecco Press, 2020

Synopsis

From the acclaimed author of Tubes, a lively and surprising tour of the infrastructure behind the weather forecast, the people who built it, and what it reveals about our climate and our planet

The weather is the foundation of our daily lives. It's a staple of small talk, the app on our smartphones, and often the first thing we check each morning. Yet behind these quotidian interactions is one of the most expansive machines human beings have ever constructed--a triumph of science, technology and global cooperation. But what is this 'weather machine' and who created it?

In The Weather Machine, Andrew Blum takes readers on a fascinating journey through an everyday miracle. In a quest to understand how the forecast works, he visits old weather stations and watches new satellites blast off. He follows the dogged efforts of scientists to create a supercomputer model of the atmosphere and traces the surprising history of the algorithms that power their work. He discovers that we have quietly entered a golden age of meteorology--our tools allow us to predict weather more accurately than ever, and yet we haven't learned to trust them, nor can we guarantee the fragile international alliances that allow our modern weather machine to exist.

Written with the sharp wit and infectious curiosity Andrew Blum is known for, The Weather Machine pulls back the curtain on a universal part of our everyday lives, illuminating our relationships with technology, the planet, and the global community.

About this title

About the Author

Andrew Blum is a journalist and the author of Tubes: A Journey to the Center of the Internet, the first book-length look at the physical infrastructure of the Internet. Tubes has been translated into ten languages, and has become a crucial reference for journalists, politicians, and entrepreneurs eager to understand how the Internet works. Blum's writing about architecture, design, technology, urbanism, art, and travel has appeared in numerous publications, including Wired, Popular Science, Vanity Fair, and the New York Times.

From the Back Cover

From the acclaimed author of Tubes comes a lively and surprising tour of the infrastructure behind the weather forecast, the people who built it and what it reveals about our climate and our planet

The weather is the foundation of our daily lives. It's a staple of small talk, the app on our smartphones and often the first thing we check each morning. Yet behind these quotidian interactions is one of the most expansive machines human beings have ever constructed--a triumph of science, technology and global cooperation. But what is this weather machine and who created it?

In The Weather Machine, Andrew Blum takes readers on a fascinating journey through an everyday miracle. In a quest to understand how the forecast works, he visits old weather stations and watches new satellites blast off. He follows the dogged efforts of scientists to create a supercomputer model of the atmosphere and traces the surprising history of the algorithms that power their work. He discovers that we have quietly entered a golden age of meteorology-- our tools allow us to predict weather more accurately than ever, and yet we haven't learned to trust them, nor can we guarantee the fragile international alliances that allow our modern weather machine to exist.

Written with the sharp wit and infectious curiosity Andrew Blum is known for, The Weather Machine pulls back the curtain on a universal part of our everyday lives, illuminating our relationships with technology, the planet and the global community.

andrew blum is a journalist writing about infrastructure, technology, architecture and design. His first book, Tubes: A Journey to the Center of the Internet, has been translated into nine languages, and has become a crucial reference on the inner workings of the global network. His writing has appeared in numerous publications, including Wired, Popular Science, Vanity Fair and the New York Times.

Edition details

• Publisher: Ecco Press
• Publication date: 2020
• ISBN 10: 006236863X
• ISBN 13: 9780062368638
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 224