A Furious Sky
The Five-Hundred-Year History of America's Hurricanes
Ratings4
Average rating4.5
15
The Five-Hundred-Year History of America's Hurricanes
Ratings4
Average rating4.5
Hurricanes menace North America from June through November every year, each as powerful as 10,000 nuclear bombs. These megastorms will likely become more intense as the planet continues to warm, yet we too often treat them as local disasters and TV spectacles, unaware of how far-ranging their impact can be. As best-selling historian Eric Jay Dolin contends, we must look to our nation’s past if we hope to comprehend the consequences of the hurricanes of the future. With A Furious Sky, Dolin has created a vivid, sprawling account of our encounters with hurricanes, from the nameless storms that threatened Columbus’s New World voyages to the destruction wrought in Puerto Rico by Hurricane Maria. Weaving a story of shipwrecks and devastated cities, of heroism and folly, Dolin introduces a rich cast of unlikely heroes, such as Benito Vines, a nineteenth-century Jesuit priest whose innovative methods for predicting hurricanes saved countless lives, and puts us in the middle of the most devastating storms of the past, none worse than the Galveston Hurricane of 1900, which killed at least 6,000 people, the highest toll of any natural disaster in American history. Dolin draws on a vast array of sources as he melds American history, as it is usually told, with the history of hurricanes, showing how these tempests frequently helped determine the nation’s course. Hurricanes, it turns out, prevented Spain from expanding its holdings in North America beyond Florida in the late 1500s, and they also played a key role in shifting the tide of the American Revolution against the British in the final stages of the conflict. As he moves through the centuries, following the rise of the United States despite the chaos caused by hurricanes, Dolin traces the corresponding development of hurricane science, from important discoveries made by Benjamin Franklin to the breakthroughs spurred by the necessities of the World War II and the Cold War. Yet after centuries of study and despite remarkable leaps in scientific knowledge and technological prowess, there are still limits on our ability to predict exactly when and where hurricanes will strike, and we remain terribly vulnerable to the greatest storms on earth. A Furious Sky is, ultimately, a story of a changing climate, and it forces us to reckon with the reality that as bad as the past has been, the future will probably be worse, unless we drastically reimagine our relationship with the planet.
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“In Cantore you have science and show business all wrapped up in one spiffy Gore-Tex package.”
I live in Florida, but I did not grow up in Florida. While I've seen the gamut from tropical storms to category 5 hurricanes up close, I didn't have the same born-and-bred knowledge many lifetime residents have about what came before. This book helped fill in the gaps nicely, and was an incredibly entertaining read.
The early chapters of the book cover the basics of hurricane history, from early encounters with these freakishly powerful storms to the beginning advances into meteorology and storm prediction. Sprinkled amongst the science are rather detailed accounts of individual storms, from accounts written in the 1500s all the way through Sandy (with a nod to Dorian in the epilogue). There's sad stories, absurdly funny stories (in a gallows humor sort of way), heroic stories, and more government bureaucracy than you can shake a stick at. I really appreciated the detailed look at some of these storms that have impacted us in the past.
I will say, however, that if you're looking for anything in-depth in terms of science, you'll probably want to look elsewhere. While basic terms and concepts are covered, it's in an accessible way, and anyone with prior knowledge in the field will likely already be familiar with what's presented.
Highly recommend for anyone living in a hurricane-prone region, or anyone interested in an incredibly engaging book about these monster storms.
Being from Louisiana, I've always been fascinated with hurricanes. My ex-husband had family living in the New Orleans area when Katrina hit in 2005, and they came and stayed with us for a while, until the waters receded. When I saw A Furious Sky on our local library shelf, I had to pick it up.
The “five hundred years” in the title may sound intimidating, but it doesn't feel that way when you're reading. Dolin does an excellent job reviewing historical hurricanes, going back as far as the days of Christopher Columbus. He also tracks the birth and development of hurricane meteorology and chronicles the creation and growth of the National Weather Services and its predecessor agencies.
The book is history lesson and meteorological study all wrapped up in one. Dolin's description of the human toll that hurricanes have taken through the years is heartwrenching. Ignorance of the strength of hurricanes caused many deaths, as did government and forecasting inefficiency and the sheer stubbornness of people thinking they could ride out the storm. I also learned a lot about the involvement of various historical figures in the study of hurricanes and in relief efforts – Benjamin Franklin, Clara Barton, and Ernest Hemingway, to name a few. Were I younger and choosing a career field, A Furious Sky might well have convinced me to focus my efforts on the study of hurricanes.
The book closes with a look at a handful of storms that had major impacts on the United States, Katrina among them. Many of these may be familiar to the reader. Recent events clearly show that our sky isn't getting any less furious (just look at the 2020 hurricane season), and the epilogue considers what role global warming may play in these poweful, destructive storms.
If you're interested in weather and history, I highly recommend this book. It was as gripping and intense as any work of fiction I've read this year.
I had looked forward to reading this book for a long time, but the truth is that, for me at least, it was a disappointment. I'm very interested in hurricanes as I live in an area where hurricanes love to hang out, so I've read lots and lots of articles and books about hurricanes. This book covered all the expected ground—how hurricanes form, the history of forecasting hurricanes, the most famous hurricanes—but all the information felt like information better covered in other books and the book didn't have that zing of storytelling delight that I enjoy in good nonfiction. The technical information on hurricanes and the history of hurricane forecasting were two parts of the book I was least interested in, and these seemed to be about half of the book.
