This book explores a wide range of issues relevant to climatology and meteorology as applied to mountain regions. It would appear to be typically aimed at an audience of advanced undergraduate students and those doing graduate research. The book has a very pleasant format, the text is nicely laid out, and the figures are, on the whole, superb, making use of excellent, didactic graphics and sketches.

The volume is divided into four major sections, the shortest of which is devoted to an introduction to mountain climates, with a particular focus on the mountains of North America. This introduces the reader to some of the themes that are dealt with in other chapters. The principal factors governing mountain climates are clearly set out: latitude, altitude, the degree of continentality, and the importance of regional circulation patterns in forging regional climates in complex terrain.

Part II provides a descriptive overview of the essentials of atmospheric dynamics and thermodynamics. This section addresses in a classical manner the scales of atmospheric motion, stability and other aspects related to the planetary boundary layer, pressure as a driving force behind winds and midlatitude frontal systems, cloud and precipitation processes, and techniques for analyzing and forecasting weather. Whenever possible, Whiteman attempts to apply the more general aspects of atmospheric physics to mountain regions.

As a transition to the section dedicated to particular applications of mountain meteorology, Part III deals with mountain winds. A distinction is made between terrain-forced flows and mountain-and-valley breezes. In the former case, processes are highlighted that determine the manner through which large-scale flows interact with topographic obstacles, that is, by flowing over or around mountains or by being blocked as a result of cold-air damming. The chapter related to mountain winds addresses aspects such as the mechanisms responsible for up-slope and valley winds, disturbances of local breezes through large-scale flows, and particularities of diurnal winds in basins and over plateaus. Here again, the author relates many qualitative and theoretical concepts to concrete examples selected mostly from the various mountain zones of North America.

The three chapters of Part IV build on the preceding chapters to enter into substantial detail on weather-related problem areas specific to mountains. The latter two of these chapters have been contributed by other authors. In Chapter 12, the concepts of diurnal breezes or synoptically driven blocking episodes are applied to air quality problems in valleys or at the interface between plains and mountain areas. Interesting examples of smog formation under particular meteorological conditions are given for readily identifiable regions such as the valley resort of Vail (Colorado) or the city of Boulder at the foot of the Colorado Front Range.

A second major area of preoccupation, namely forest and brush fires in remote mountain regions or those with limited access for prevention and control, is addressed in Chapter 13. The issues raised in this chapter are multidisciplinary and range from the beneficial effects of fire as a regeneration mechanism for many ecosystems to the danger fire can represent in terms of loss of life and damage to infrastructure. The indirect effects of fire, such as the enhanced risk of slope instability following the destruction of vegetation in complex terrain, are also discussed. This chapter brings a number of interesting and original side issues to light, in particular the feedbacks of changed surface conditions onto local or regional climate. Previously forested mountain slopes that undergo extensive denudation by fire, for example, will significantly change the ambient air temperatures as a result of shifts in the surface energy budget; moisture will also be affected through the land-cover change. Although many of the topics discussed in this chapter are far from being specific to mountains, the manner in which fire is triggered and the factors that propagate forest fires make for interesting reading. The chapter ends with a number of guidelines for fire monitoring, control, and prevention.

Another chapter that is not necessarily specific to mountains is the final one, devoted to aerial spraying. The micrometeorological aspects of chemical spray deposition are addressed in terms of both perturbations induced by the turbulence generated by the aircraft themselves and atmospheric dispersion of the chemicals as they fall earthward. In mountain regions, the rate of deposition of products sprayed from aircraft is modulated by local and regional factors such as valley breezes or reduced flow patterns resulting from blocking situations.

The concepts and issues addressed throughout the manuscript are upheld by a substantial bibliography, including the author's own original research over a number of years. It would have been of interest perhaps to have a broader outlook in terms of mountains than just those of the United States. There are, of course, similarities in weather and climate patterns in different mountains of the world, especially in extratropical regions. But it might have been valuable to have a chapter devoted to specific aspects of mountain meteorology in the tropics, such as the disturbances induced by monsoon circulations to normal weather patterns in the Himalayas or the particularities of the tropical cloud forests. This would have helped the reader identify key differences in terms of meteorology that inevitably exist between the tropics and the midlatitudes. Even comparisons of certain climate–orography interactions within different midlatitude regions might have provided a further, useful dimension.

These comments should not overshadow the fact that this new reference work represents a most useful contribution to our understanding of weather and climate processes in complex terrain. It is indeed rare to encounter such a wealth of different topics, particularly those that are dealt with in the final section of the book.