Thomas Morris Longstreth (1886–1975)

Early 20th century book explaining how weather works and therefore how to predit it, aimed at the lay American with a proclivity for traipsing around woods in a thunderstorm.

Knocks a good many myths of the time on their head. Of course the author starts off explaining how the old folk wisdom (with a few exceptions) is codswallop, and then ends with his own set of rules which, apart from not being in traditional rhyming couplets, are probably not a great deal more accurate on a global scale. Of course he does mention that the old rhymes were developed in their own locales, and he himself is writing for his own.

But the best part is the light sense of humour woven through the book:

* "The conformation of the St. Lawrence region provides an irresistible attraction for American storms. [...] Give the ordinary cyclone its head, and, ten to one, you will find it on the way to the St. Lawrence. The inhabitants will confirm this statement, I am sure. They do not feel discriminated against in the matter of weather. They get nearly everything that is going. Since they have to accommodate from seventy to eighty cyclones in fifty-two weeks they have very little time to brood over any one variety [...]"

* "The first time you tell a New Englander that his easterly storms come from the west you are in danger"

* "The refrigerated, revivified air sweeping down from the north is tonic. [...] If we had arranged a process of refreshment like this at vast expense we should have been intensely proud of it. As it is we are intensely annoyed at it and occasionally a few people are frozen to death."… (mehr)