Weather Detective : Rediscovering Nature’s Secret Signs

The Weather Detective, while at times interesting and informative, is not a book likely to change the way you view the natural world as The Hidden Life of Trees did for many of us. Less a book on weather and more on proper gardening practices in Western Europe, I couldn’t help but feeling slightly disappointed when I finished reading.

Wohlleben does write with acuity about the need for human beings to reintegrate with the natural world and get out of the artificial technological ecosystems we spend so much of our life in. He provides many suggestions on how to read and interpret nature from southerly winds to different kinds of birds. But the presentation is more of various factoids than of synthesis.

While the genius of the Hidden Life of Trees consisted of synthesizing and popularizing a wealth of scientific material and personal experience running counter to our common sense impressions, The Weather Detective has none of this structure. As mentioned, much of it just deals with organic gardening practices. This is great if you maintain a garden but obviously not as interesting if you do not.

In short, though the book does contain a lot of wisdom on how to read and understand nature I wouldn’t recommend it unless you garden and are interested in a more scientific understanding of gardening. While not a waste of time for other readers, the book is too unstructured—and doesn’t even have the same elan—to compare favorably with Wohlleben’s earlier mini-classic.