Windswept: The Story of Wind and Weather

Janet Arnett is the former campus manager of adult education at Ontario’s Georgian College. She is the author of Antiques and Collectibles: Starting Small, The Grange at Knock, and 673 Ways to Save Money.

During World War II, the Japanese used the jet stream to send a bomb to
Saskatchewan. Hundreds of such unusual facts, anecdotes, myths, legends,
and folk sayings about wind pack this intense study. It is all about the
science of wind, woven together with personal anecdotes, some history,
and the story of Ivan, a 2004 hurricane.

The work looks at the three main factors in weather analysis: climate
cycles, the need of flowing air to form into vortexes, and microclimate
(local) winds. Humans have long struggled to understand and forecast
weather, a task dependent on the ability to measure wind. Weather
forecasting, we are told, is basically a means of tracking wind and air
systems and their effects.

The history component of the book reaches back to ancient times, when
it was assumed the winds were gods, and takes us through to the
development, in modern times, of intensity scales for wind chill,
hurricanes, and tornadoes. In addition to considerable detail on the
physics of wind, there are chapters on how wind is used today (sailing,
flying, power generation) and on the role of wind in spreading
pollutants around the globe.

The book explores the interconnectedness of natural systems and the way
these work together to affect global warming. The value of the work as a
science text is enhanced by supplementary charts on the composition of
the atmosphere, hurricane strengths, wind-speed definitions, a windchill
chart, and hurricane and cyclone stats.

Much of the text is science—heavy going for the casual reader. Yet de
Villiers is a stylist. When he puts physics aside to relate personal
anecdotes or describe the monster storm Ivan, he demonstrates mastery of
a descriptive style that has the power to make the reader revel in his
lively use of language.