The Field Book

Vol. IThe Engine

Thermodynamics, dynamics, radiation, composition and chemistry. The atmosphere as a machine.

Vol. IIThe Clockwork

Sun, moon, seasons, tides, orbital geometry and time.

Vol. IIIThe Sky

Clouds, optics, electricity and the lights of the upper atmosphere.

Vol. IVThe Water

Phase change, hydrometeors, the hydrologic cycle and the ocean interface.

Vol. VThe Land

Orography, soils, coasts, cities, fire weather fuels and ice.

Vol. VIThe Events

Storms and hazards as machines. Each plate maps onto the alerts the National Weather Service issues.

• FB-EVT-001ThunderstormA thunderstorm is a cumulonimbus that makes lightning. Moist air rises in a column the height of the troposphere, freezes, falls as rain and hail, and separates enough charge to close a circuit through the air. One cell lives about half an hour to an hour.
• FB-EVT-007SupercellA supercell is a thunderstorm with a deep, persistent, rotating updraft: the mesocyclone. The rotation is what organizes it, and lets it live for hours. It makes most of the largest hail and most of the strongest tornadoes, but most supercells never make a tornado at all.
• FB-EVT-100Flash floodA flash flood is water that rises fast: within six hours of the rain, the dam failure or the ice jam that causes it, and in a steep basin within minutes. It happens where water is gathered faster than the ground and the channel can carry it away, and most of the people it kills are in vehicles.
• FB-EVT-105Coastal floodA coastal flood is the sea standing higher than the land it borders. The tide sets the level, a storm adds to it by pressing the water in with its wind and lifting it with its low pressure, and waves ride on top. The flood comes at high tide.
• FB-EVT-139Fire weatherFire weather is weather that lets a fire start easily and spread fast: dry air that draws water out of the fuel, wind that drives the flame and carries embers ahead of it, and lightning with little rain. A red flag is flown when they meet over fuel already dry enough to burn.

Vol. VIIThe Instruments

How the atmosphere is measured. Each plate binds to the instrument atlas.

Vol. VIIIThe Record

Climate, extremes, quality control and archives.

Vol. IXThe Station

Observation practice, warning doctrine, and how to read what this site draws.

• FB-STN-001How to read a warningA warning is a product with a fixed anatomy: a headline naming the hazard, an area, a time it ends, what is happening and what it will do, what to do, and a line of code that lets a machine track the same event from the first issue to the last.