Furious Winds and Parched Islands: Tropical Cyclones (1558-1970) and Droughts (1722-1987) in the Pacific

Abstract

This book has been gestating for nearly twenty years and its publication now is due to the manifest upsurge in interest in improving our understanding of past climate changes in order to better understand those which challenge us during the remainder of the twenty-first century and beyond. This book does not provide a comprehensive account of the climate of the Pacific, how it evolved, how it currently functions, and how it may develop in the foreseeable future. Far better accounts of such topics are the relevant parts of the books by Rapaport (1999), Nunn (1999, 2007), and Barnett and Campbell (2010), as well as the book chapter by Lough et al. (2011). The real value of this book is in providing the most complete account yet of the history of tropical cyclones (hurricanes) and droughts in the Pacific as ascertained from written records since these began. This history is expected to be a valuable resource for those interested in both individual events in particular places as well as the changes in climate that the records represent.