Burt, Christopher C(linton) 1954–

PERSONAL: Born October 12, 1954, in New York, NY; son of Nathaniel and Margaret Brooks (Clinton) Burt; married Jeernen Songsaeng, August 9, 1992. Education: University of Wisconsin, B.A., 1981.

ADDRESSES: Home—Oakland, CA. Agent—c/o Author Mail, W. W. Norton & Company, 500 5th Ave., New York, NY 10110.

CAREER: Pacific Rim Press, Inc., Bangkok, Thailand, publisher and managing director, 1985; Compass American Guides, Inc., Oakland, CA, co-founder and publisher, 1990–92, executive editor and creative director, 1990–.

WRITINGS:

Extreme Weather: A Guide and Record Book, cartography by Mark Stroud, Norton (New York, NY), 2004.

SIDELIGHTS: Christopher C. Burt, co-founder and publisher of the "Compass American Guidebook" series, is the author of Extreme Weather: A Guide and Record Book, a work that "will captivate weather lovers and make converts of others," according to School Library Journal reviewer Peggy Bercher.

In Extreme Weather Burt examines a range of meteorological activity, including rain and floods, tornadoes, snow, windstorms, hurricanes, fog, heat, cold, and drought, and he supplements his text with a variety of charts, maps, and photographs. "It would be easy for a book like this to founder amid swirls of data," remarked Weatherwise contributor Robert Henson. "However, Burt takes us through the records with a narrative that pulls together numbers, dates, and places in a coherent and entertaining fashion." Writing in the New York Times Book Review, Tim Cahill observed, "Burt's book is full of tables listing your state's high and lows, its precipitation and snowfall records, but Extreme Weather also provides concise explanations for many of the odd and extreme phenomena he describes." Among the strange weather events Burt discusses are a winter storm that dropped several inches of snow on New Orleans in 1899 and a seven-pound hailstone that fell in Nebraska in 2003. Henson concluded that Extreme Weather is "a treasure chest of meteorological superlatives that should prove rewarding to newcomers and long-time weather buffs alike."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Forbes, September 2, 2004, Thomas Jackson, review of Extreme Weather: A Guide and Record Book.

New York Times Book Review, January 30, 2005, Tim Cahill, "You Do Need a Weatherman," review of Extreme Weather, p. 13.

School Library Journal, February, 2005, Peggy Bercher, review of Extreme Weather, p. 158.

Science News, December 11, 2004, review of Extreme Weather, p. 383.

Weatherwise, November-December, 2004, Robert Henson, review of Extreme Weather, p. 66.