The Colorado Weather Almanac came out last year and I have added this to my short list of “must read” books for anyone interested in weather, particularly for those in Colorado.  Everyone here in Colorado is well aware of the author, Mike Nelson, 7News’ chief meteorologist, and he does an extraordinary job covering the entire gamut of weather conditions we receive here.

The best part of the book is described in one of the words in the title – Colorado.  This is all about our weather.  It starts out with what is probably in my opinion the single most interesting section, Colorado climate.  Mr. Nelson explains all the ins and outs of how our topography and our geography greatly impact the weather we have and why weather varies so greatly over short distances, even within the confines of the metro area and Front Range.

There is of course discussion about standard weather terms we all have heard such as dew point, pressure, fronts, El Nino, La Nina and on and on.  The key though is that the book ties all of this into Colorado and how these things directly impact us.  Other terms associated with our weather like upslope, downslope, Chinook and more are also covered; things that we hear on the news every day but may not fully understand.

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