As you may know, I grew up in the Midwest where the weather is dynamic and often extreme. And –  since most of the land is flat – you can literally see it coming a mile away. I prided myself on my ability to smell an impending storm or see the see the signs of a tornado. 

And then I moved here. 

Here we have mountains, valleys, hills, cavernous gorges and ocean winds. Sometimes I can’t tell what the clouds are doing two blocks away. It has completely thrown off my weather-sense. (A secret power way cooler than spider-sense, by the way.) 

That’s why I was excited when I happened across this book by University of Washington atmospheric scientist Cliff Mass. Entitled simply The Weather of The Pacific Northwest, it’s a comprehensive and beautiful guide to our fair region’s not-always-fair weather. Using both graphs and photographs, Mass lays out how our weather works and why it’s so hard to predict.

Katie Schneider of The Oregonian said in her review of the book, “Mass… debunks the myth that the weather here is bland, mild and dreary…. [His book’s] depth and breadth should appeal to anyone who has wondered why Hood River gets consistently strong winds or what cloud patterns really mean for storm conditions in the Cascades.”