There's a saying in this country, that if you don't like the weather, wait five minutes. However, Canadian students have been waiting far longer for the winds of change to hit meteorology books.
A local husband and wife team have helped change the climate of Canada's introductory weather studies with the first-ever textbook addressing Canadian weather systems.
Peter Jackson, an environmental science professor at the University of Northern British Columbia, adapted Meteorology Today: An Introduction to Weather, Climate and the Environment with wife Christine - a UNBC geography senior lab instructor.
"Many U.S. books tend to focus on the U.S. rather than a global perspective," said Christine. The Canadian edition highlights phenomena and trends common above the 49th parallel and features graphics and figures about Canadian locations.
"Students can see [on new weather map] where they live," said Peter.
The Jacksons began working on the Nelson-published book - which is already in its ninth edition in the United States - back in 2008, spending evenings, weekends and the summers on the project which has streamlined both the learning and instruction process.
Because the content in previous texts was so focused on the way Americans analyzed information, students who were going on to careers in meteorology would be required to relearn on the job how to analyze data the Canadian way, Peter explained.
It also required instructors to constantly interject with the differences, which Christine said is one of her biggest frustrations when teaching.
In addition to the roughly 330 new figures and graphics the Jacksons added to the original Donald Ahrens'-penned text, they also sourced 19 contributors for focus boxes on topics such as fog, Canada's Tornado Alley and how to be a broadcast meteorologist. But they were careful not to go too crazy with the changes, they said.
"People who are already using the book don't want to have to revamp everything just because someone new comes along and changes things," Christine said.
Available in hard cover since April, the text will be used in UNBC classrooms in January and in other schools across the country beginning this fall.
Having it complete is relief for the couple, who had to set aside other work while they picked over the various details and had to balance each of their strong opinions.
"We haven't gotten divorced yet," Christine said of working collaboratively with her husband. "It was intense, but interesting."
