Are you a weather fan looking for a good read? Here’s the book for you

I’m often asked about book recommendations about meteorology. One novel that resonates with me is “Storm” by George Stewart. Like tuning into your favorite radio station, it’s like an old friend.

I have read this book four times, it’s that good; in fact, it’s one of my favorites. Be fair warned, it isn’t easy to put down. If you communicate about the weather in California, it is almost a requirement to read it.

It was published in 1941, and even though it was released nearly 80 years ago, it is just as relevant today as it was back then in our interconnected world.

The novel tells the story of a fearsome mid-latitude cyclone named “Maria” that slams into California one winter after a drought.

The tale takes place over 12 days when on the first day, a junior meteorologist with the Weather Bureau (National Weather Service) in the San Francisco office first spots the genesis of a low-pressure system off the Kamchatka Peninsula, Russia. Stewart writes about the intensification of the storm as it travels across the Pacific and begins to reach the West Coast on the sixth day.

As the storm system moves through the state, Stewart explains the interwoven impacts it has on our state’s farmers and ranchers, PG&E and telecommunication utility workers, newspaper and radio reporters, California Highway Patrol, airlines, railroads, California Division of Highways (now Caltrans), California Division of Water Resources and many other folks who call the state their home.

Remember, when Stewart wrote this work, weather or any other type of manmade satellites did not exist. In 1946, an American unmanned rocket equipped with a camera reached an altitude of 65 miles and recorded pictures of Earth’s clouds from space. Those were some of the first pictures taken of clouds from above the planet. The first satellite dedicated solely to weather observations was not launched until 1960.

Numerical weather models that today are almost indispensable in giving guidance to forecasters were then in their infancy. The weather models perform billions of calculations to simulate the motion of weather patterns in the Earth’s chaotic atmosphere. This type of forecasting is possible because movements of the atmosphere follow natural laws, which can be expressed in mathematical equations.

British mathematician Lewis Fry Richardson first proposed numerical weather prediction in 1922. He wasn’t very successful because, without modern computers, it would literally take him nearly three months of performing calculations to produce a weather forecast that only predicted the weather 24 hours in the future. But his work laid the foundation for the first real success by the U.S. Joint Numerical Weather Prediction Unit in 1955.

What these meteorologists had were weather observers, real people stationed on ships, land, and even aircraft who reported atmospheric pressure, wind speed, and direction, dew point temperatures, precipitation, and sky conditions. Some released weather balloons to indicate upper-level winds and atmospheric stability. They sent their observation by radio, wire, and phone to the Weather Bureau for dissemination. The weather forecasters would use this data to draw their surface and upper-level charts and write their predictions.

One of these old school meteorologists was Rea Strange of Santa Barbara — whose name was pronounced Ray. He forecasted weather along the California coast for more than 50 years. He was also my mentor throughout most of my weather forecasting career. He had the knowledge, vast experience and that intrinsic intuition to be right nearly all the time.

Like the meteorologist described so eloquently in Stewart’s book, Rea drew his own maps. I can see him perfectly defined in one of the books passages.

“On the table lay a large map which he had almost finished preparing. It was large not only by its own dimensions but also by its coverage of about one half the northern hemisphere. He laid aside his eraser and colored pencils and sat back to look at the work. Involuntarily, he breathed a little more deeply. To him, as to some archangel hovering in the ninth heaven, the weather lay revealed.”

This book is available in many libraries. It is also available on Amazon.

PG&E scholarships available

PG&E announced that scholarship applications are now being accepted for college-bound high schoolers as well as current college and continuing education students living in Northern and Central California.

More than 150 awards totaling nearly $500,000 are being made available through PG&E scholarships, which includes the employee resource group (ERG), engineering network group (ENG) and Better Together STEM scholarship programs.

PG&E scholarship information, including criteria and applications, is available on PG&E’s website. To be considered for a scholarship, all applications must be submitted by Feb. 7, 2020.

“Helping students in our communities attend college and achieve their goals is a big step toward improving lives. These individuals, many of whom are the first in their families to attend college, will be the leaders and innovators of tomorrow. We’re proud to invest in these promising young people,” said Mary King, PG&E vice president of human resources and chief diversity officer.

More than 5,000 PG&E employees belong to the ERGs and ENGs. Each group helps further the company’s commitment to serving its communities and growing employee engagement.

Funds for Better Together STEM scholarships come from the PG&E Foundation, which is dedicated to supporting charities that address critical social, educational and environmental challenges in the company’s service area. These scholarships are supported by PG&E shareholders.