Buy new:
$24.95
FREE delivery on orders over $35 shipped by Amazon.
Ships from: Amazon.com
Sold by: Amazon.com
$24.95
Get Fast, Free Shipping with Amazon Prime FREE Returns
FREE delivery on orders over $35 shipped by Amazon.
Temporarily out of stock.
Order now and we'll deliver when available.
Order now and we'll deliver when available. We'll e-mail you with an estimated delivery date as soon as we have more information. Your account will only be charged when we ship the item.
Details
$$24.95 () Includes selected options. Includes initial monthly payment and selected options. Details
Price
Subtotal
$$24.95
Subtotal
Initial payment breakdown
Shipping cost, delivery date, and order total (including tax) shown at checkout.
Ships from
Amazon.com
Ships from
Amazon.com
Sold by
Amazon.com
Sold by
Amazon.com
Returns
30-day easy returns
30-day easy returns
This item can be returned in its original condition for a full refund or replacement within 30 days of receipt.
Read full return policy
Returns
30-day easy returns
This item can be returned in its original condition for a full refund or replacement within 30 days of receipt.
Read full return policy
Payment
Secure transaction
Your transaction is secure
We work hard to protect your security and privacy. Our payment security system encrypts your information during transmission. We don’t share your credit card details with third-party sellers, and we don’t sell your information to others. Learn more
Payment
Secure transaction
We work hard to protect your security and privacy. Our payment security system encrypts your information during transmission. We don’t share your credit card details with third-party sellers, and we don’t sell your information to others. Learn more
$10.00
Get Fast, Free Shipping with Amazon Prime FREE Returns
FREE delivery Tuesday, May 21 on orders shipped by Amazon over $35
Only 1 left in stock - order soon.
$$24.95 () Includes selected options. Includes initial monthly payment and selected options. Details
Price
Subtotal
$$24.95
Subtotal
Initial payment breakdown
Shipping cost, delivery date, and order total (including tax) shown at checkout.
Access codes and supplements are not guaranteed with used items.
Kindle app logo image

Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required.

Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web.

Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app.

QR code to download the Kindle App

Follow the author

Marlene Bradford
+ Follow
More books from this author
Something went wrong. Please try your request again later.

Scanning the Skies: A History of Tornado Forecasting Hardcover – April 15, 2001

by Marlene Bradford (Author)
4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 5 ratings
See all formats and editions
{"desktop_buybox_group_1":[{"displayPrice":"$24.95","priceAmount":24.95,"currencySymbol":"$","integerValue":"24","decimalSeparator":".","fractionalValue":"95","symbolPosition":"left","hasSpace":false,"showFractionalPartIfEmpty":true,"offerListingId":"40Km33ViXpzWw2eNBnYAhb7nkYwEB2eQy3mG8cM0u4ZCBY9pkMlQVYOb%2BDLU%2FArUDC8kv%2Bv2pty22NGECMhZ1WIA0q26m%2Bp1X6gP1fsZMTYEuC8T473FLwPfyxhdlT8%2FMGvmFP8LiUk%3D","locale":"en-US","buyingOptionType":"NEW","aapiBuyingOptionIndex":0}, {"displayPrice":"$10.00","priceAmount":10.00,"currencySymbol":"$","integerValue":"10","decimalSeparator":".","fractionalValue":"00","symbolPosition":"left","hasSpace":false,"showFractionalPartIfEmpty":true,"offerListingId":"40Km33ViXpzWw2eNBnYAhb7nkYwEB2eQBQiL7B77nQMkNtJEusjXti4CR7PLBvOxc8ai62qd8C1gL5JTFU4UcwPDwiFo3jnQ0slq83l8Mn%2Bp63tgza%2FjqzI9AVNo8VeG9G71uNLszWgvcQPCAc3jO8ZHdEMfrwv77vFA46SV9aSda2NQEu2z%2FSzdborLjGq2","locale":"en-US","buyingOptionType":"USED","aapiBuyingOptionIndex":1}]}

Purchase options and add-ons

Tornadoes, nature’s most violent and unpredictable storms, descend from the clouds nearly one thousand times yearly and have claimed eighteen thousand American lives since 1880. However, the U.S. Weather Bureau--fearing public panic and believing tornadoes were too fleeting for meteorologists to predict--forbade the use of the word "tornado" in forecasts until 1938.

Scanning the Skies traces the history of today’s tornado warning system, a unique program that integrates federal, state, and local governments, privately controlled broadcast media, and individuals. Bradford examines the ways in which the tornado warning system has grown from meager beginnings into a program that protects millions of Americans each year. Although no tornado forecasting program existed before WWII, the needs of the military prompted the development of a severe weather warning system in tornado prone areas. Bradford traces the post-war creation of the Air Force centralized tornado forecasting program and its civilian counterpart at the Weather Bureau. Improvements in communication, especially the increasing popularity of television, allowed the Bureau to expand its warning system further.

This book highlights the modern tornado watch system and explains how advancements during the latter half of the twentieth-century--such as computerized data collection and processing systems, Doppler radar, state-of-the-art television weather centers, and an extensive public education program--have resulted in the drastic reduction of tornado fatalities.

Read more Read less
Previous page
  1. Print length
    256 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    University of Oklahoma Press
  4. Publication date
    April 15, 2001
  5. Dimensions
    5.5 x 0.8 x 8.5 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    0806133023
  7. ISBN-13
    978-0806133027
  8. See all details
Next page
The Amazon Book Review
The Amazon Book Review
Book recommendations, author interviews, editors' picks, and more. Read it now

Frequently bought together

Scanning the Skies: A History of Tornado Forecasting
$24.95
Temporarily out of stock.
Order now and we'll deliver when available. We'll e-mail you with an estimated delivery date as soon as we have more information. Your account will only be charged when we ship the item.
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
+
The 1965 Palm Sunday Tornadoes in Indiana (Disaster)
$12.25
Get it as soon as Sunday, May 19
In Stock
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
Total price:
To see our price, add these items to your cart.
Details
Added to Cart
One of these items ships sooner than the other.
Show details Hide details
Choose items to buy together.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Marlene Bradford is an independent scholar who lives in Garland, Texas.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ University of Oklahoma Press (April 15, 2001)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 256 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0806133023
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0806133027
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.07 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.5 x 0.8 x 8.5 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 5 ratings

About the author

Follow authors to get new release updates, plus improved recommendations.
Marlene Bradford

Marlene Bradford

Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.
Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

Marlene Bradford has spent most of her life in Tornado Alley. When living in Lawrence, Kansas, Joe Eagleman, a meteorology professor at the University of Kansas, encouraged her to write tornado history. Her doctoral dissertation at Texas A&M University was a history of tornado forecasting. Since then, she has been hooked on writing tornado history. Her love (besides tornadoes) is teaching. The author has recently retired from more than twenty years of teaching U.S. history at the college and high school level. She currently resides in Garland, Texas.

Customer reviews

4.5 out of 5 stars
4.5 out of 5
5 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

erika erlandson
5.0 out of 5 stars love the book
Reviewed in the United States on January 21, 2013
Verified Purchase
very good book I would recommend this book to anyone who likes tornadoes.very awesome book.i love tornados there inspiring and very neat.
Helpful
 Report
Charles Doswell III
3.0 out of 5 stars Scanning the Skies - A somewhat disappointing history
Reviewed in the United States on February 20, 2003
Verified Purchase
By and large, the author has succeeding in drawing together a lot of information. However, it appears to me that she has drawn most of her understanding of the history from a limited list of participants in that history. Because she is not a meteorologist herself, this lack of thorough research leads to her characterizations being rather flat. This is not a bad book for those interested in the history of our science, but it is not a definitive work on the subject.
7 people found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
Keith C. Heidorn
4.0 out of 5 stars Tornado Forecasting History
Reviewed in the United States on May 24, 2001
In Scanning The Skies: A History of Tornado Forecasting, Marlene Bradford highlights the development of the US tornado forecast and warning systems from the earliest inception to the modern, multi-component, highly technical system in place today.
Ms Bradford begins the book with the historical background into the theories of tornado formation and the early attempts to predict tornadoes in the United States. The major focus of the story, however, begins a little more than a century ago when the first scientific inquiries and debates as to the nature and causes of tornadoes began. Much of the limited early debate appears to have focussed on the negative aspects of a tornado forecasts, even speculating that more would die from panic or illnesses contracted while huddled in damp storm cellars than from the storms themselves! The US Weather Bureau, recognizing the difficulties in forecasting tornadoes and fearing public panic from any such forecasts, actually forbade use of the word "tornado" in any forecast until 1938.
When the author reaches the state of tornado knowledge during and just after the World War II years, she reaches the true heart of the story. Bradford gives us a well-documented account of the friction between military and civilian storm forecasters in the post-war years that was sparked by the first storm warnings produced within the US military weather service. She takes us from the events leading up to the first "official" tornado warning forecast of Major Ernest Fawbush and Captain Robert Miller issued on March 25, 1948 to the modern forecast and warning system used today by the US Storm Prediction Center.
Having brought the warning system development to the new century, Bradford concludes the book with a chapter an the evaluation of the effectiveness of the integrated tornado warning system over the past several decades. Her analysis shows a difficulty in proving the question as to whether such a system has saved enough lives for the cost of development, implementation and function.
I have no real criticism of Scanning The Skies. Readers looking for more technical material on the scientific aspects of the history of tornado forecasting may be disappointed in this book as it only briefly and superficially discusses scientific advances that lead to improvements of the tornado warning system (such as the development of Doppler radar). Recognizing that the book is intended to present the history of the process of developing a tornado warning system and not about the science behind it, I feel a little more attention could have been given to some of the more relevant scientific aspects with a few diagrams for clarification as to what forecasters look for when developing a tornado watch or warning forecast.
If you are interested in tornadoes or in disaster prevention and warning programs, I think you will find Scanning The Skies an enjoyable and informative read. Scanning The Skies is a well- written historical account of the rise of the modern tornado forecasting and warning system as well as a peek at the workings within government as agencies vie for control and funding while simultaneously trying to avoid criticism.
12 people found this helpful
Helpful
 Report