Reeds Weather Handbook

This pocket-sized guide will equip sailors with the knowledge to read and predict the weather.

Weather determines when we sail, where we sail to and whether we arrive safely. This essential pocket-sized guide equips the reader with all the necessary tools to predict and deal with local and distant weather conditions, whether on a day trip or a longer cruise, along the coast or further offshore.

Each topic is broken down into digestible chapters, explaining the origins and effects of the full spectrum of weather conditions, including:
- using and evaluating weather forecasts
- depressions, fronts, isobars and other coastal effects
- waves and swell
- weather lore and sky watching.

Meteorology is still advancing and sources of forecasts are changing. This new edition keeps the handbook up-to-date, with a particular focus on the increasing use of GRIB files, computer weather modelling and sources of forecasts, especially with the proliferation of computer forecasts becoming available free of charge.

With practical explanations and helpful diagrams and photographs, this is the ideal guide for skippers and crew, especially those studying for their Day Skipper and Yachtmaster exams.

Frank Singleton is a former Senior Forecaster with the Met Office and is an RYA Yachtmaster with over 50,000 miles under his keel, mainly on the family Hallberg-Rassy 34. He has cruised widely in European and Mediterranean waters and enjoyed 10 Caribbean charter holidays. His weather website for sailors (http://weather.mailasail.com/Franks-Weather) is known worldwide as an extensive, informed and informative resource for all sea-goers. He has given many lectures to sailors, especially for the Cruising Association and the Royal Yachting Association.