Historic weather stories are engrained in American culture. We all remember where we were during the Storm of the Century and we�ve heard about the film and novel The Perfect Storm. Some of us may have even heard about the Winter of 1899 or the heat waves of 1936.
However it is often difficult to find anything on these weather events beyond anecdotal �human interest� stories. Technical case studies do surface that detail the more significant events, but many tend to become obscure, either disappearing into old publications, minimally circulated, or a victim of the �out of print� syndrome. This is disappointing as meteorologists must be able to understand historic record-setting weather events before they can effectively anticipate future ones. Numerical models do not perform well in such situations, yet ironically it is during significant weather events where they are depended upon most heavily.
The book Extreme American Weather is a reference guide for the most significant forecasting events that have ever occurred in the United States. Surface and upper-air charts detailing the event�s lifecycle are combined with summaries, newspaper accounts, and meteorological information. Extreme American Weather is also educational and interactive, presenting twelve unanalyzed events with solutions and discussions so that readers can try their hand at travelling into the past and analyzing historical weather.