The Secret World of Weather

The full title of this book is The Secret World of Weather: How to read signs in every cloud breeze, hill, street, plant, animal, and dewdrop. I read this for the category Climate/weather of the 2022 NONFICTION READER CHALLENGE. It was written by Tristan Gooley, 2021.

Gooley has written several books about awareness in nature (eg, How to Read Water, The Lost Art of Reading Nature’s Signs, The Nature Instinct), but this is the first one I became aware of. I was particularly interested in the topic because I love hiking, birdwatching, gardening, and generally being in nature. And yet I don’t know much about reading signs of weather other than rain clouds on the horizon.

The book is divided into 22 chapters, each one focusing on different aspects of nature that affect and reveal the weather. For example: How to Feel the Wind; Dew and Frost; Rain, Hail and Snow; The Trees; Plants, Fungi and Lichens; The Animals; and so on.

Although I read through the book, for me it is the kind of book to refer to in parts, rather than read cover to cover. Some of the information is very detailed and specific, so it’s hard to remember when I’m out walking. There are some sections I’ll be reading again before I feel confident enough to read certain weather signs when I’m outside.

Although there is a lot of detail, Gooley uses simple explanations of how weather ‘works’ (“Imagine a large bowl filled with water and lots of ice cubes” as the beginning of the explanation of latent heat). And in many places, the writing is quite lyrical (“The act of looking brings wonder”).

An extra for me is that the concept of ‘navigation’ Gooley refers to relates to the book I read about Wayfinding (see post of September 20, 2022).

Since I like to watch birds in my neighborhoods and on my walks, I liked the sub-section Birds in the chapter The Animals. However, I didn’t get easy cause-and-effect signs of weather change (for example, when birds do X it means it will rain). But instead, noticing changes in bird activity seems to reveal information about the weather as a series of connections.

Gooley writes, “I find that individual animal calls are not the key, but that any changes in the soundscape are definitely worth tuning in to. … Birds help us to join the pieces.”

There are two sections of color photographs as well as very useful drawings illustrating the meteorological effects he explains. The references at the end of book include Sources for his information, a 5-page long Selected Bibliography, and an Index.

This book could appeal to anyone who wants to pay more attention to the signs of nature, which includes more types of people than I could list. It could be referred to as a reference or read as a guidebook of an extremely interesting lecture series.