Customer Reviews: Read 7 more reviews...
 Fine book but you need more to understand weather systems September 15, 2008
This is a well-written book but the reader needs a basic weather textbook or general weather book to get the most of Capt. Carr's book.
Great Book, NOT a Substitute for the Five Day Course June 14, 2007
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
This is one of four weather books I recommend, the other three are hot-linked below. It is a truly great book with both white space and color images, easy to read font, and a sensible easy to understand roadmap for integrating satellite imagery, upper air (500 milibar) and surface forecasts and sea state charts.
After I finished the five day course in Advanced Meterology, I created a short guide for myself that I could share with others, and this book was very helpful as a reference to complement the binder that I received with the course.
See also my list of books in my sailing library.
Mariner's Weather
Understanding Weatherfax
The Weather Wizard's Cloud Book: A Unique Way to Predict the Weather Accurately and Easily by Reading the Clouds
 Ambiguous explainations May 6, 2006
3 out of 4 found this review helpful
I learn pretty well from books and have taught myself some rather complex things that way. As a sailor and technical person, with some understanding of weather prediction and understanding weather charts going in, I still found the information difficult to assimilate. The author frequently uses terms without defining them, and his descriptions are often ambiguous, making understanding the material frustrating. I am reading it for the second time, and still find this to be the case. For example, he will make reference to something "below the [upper level] trough", and you need to somehow figure out whether he means closer to the equator, since the plane of the waves is north-south; or closer to the earth. The material is very useful, but he needed a better editor or proof-reader
Disappointed November 3, 2003
7 out of 7 found this review helpful
As a scientist, physician, and sailor, I consider myself fairly good at assimilating technical material, but I had trouble with this book. The author (like the NOAA meterologists who write those impenetrable forecast discussions) does not seem content to stick with one set of terms. A better editor would have helped him do so. One of the main thrusts of the text is the relationship between upper atmosphere phenomena (troughs and ridges) and surface conditions. After reading the book, I still don't have a satisfying grasp of how this relationship works, mainly, I think, because the phenomena are defined in descriptive rather than mechanistic terms. I am going to read it again, but will be looking for something better.
Simple, yet comprehensive and practical May 22, 2001
11 out of 13 found this review helpful
This is the best weather prediction guide I've seen. Michael Carr makes it easy to understand and interpret weather prediction models and provides plenty of examples so you can make sense of those satellite images available online! Not only that, he applies his extensive blue water sailing experience in helping to identify appropriate tactics for heavy weather avoidance. I wouldn't go to sea without it.
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