You are being provided with a book chapter by chapter. I will request you to read the book for me after each chapter. After reading the chapter, 1. shorten the chapter to no less than 300 words and no more than 400 words. 2. Do not change the name, address, or any important nouns in the chapter. 3. Do not translate the original language. 4. Keep the same style as the original chapter, keep it consistent throughout the chapter. Your reply must comply with all four requirements, or it’s invalid.
I will provide the chapter now.

METEOROLOGICAL MADNESS
 
 
            Meteorology is a branch of Earth sciences that focuses on weather
forecasting. It’s been around for centuries, but it only took its modern,
scientific look in the 1700s.
 
       The Medieval Warm Period (MWP) was a period of warming in the
North Atlantic from about CE 950 to 1250. The warming allowed the
Vikings to build settlements in Greenland which were subsequently
abandoned due to climate conditions changing.
 
            Mawsynram, India holds the Guinness World Record for the most
rainfall in a single year, with 1,000 inches in 1985. The village
averages 467 inches of rain per year.
 
            Today, most television news weather presenters in the US have
degrees in meteorology, but back in the 1960s, they were usually
“weather girls” who were known more for their looks than their
knowledge.
 
            The Weather Channel (TWC) began airing on May 2, 1982. The
channel was rated as the most trusted media network in a 2022
Economist poll.
 
       A hurricane is a storm system that rapidly rotates and is marked by a
low-pressure center, or “eye.” In most locations, these are known as
cyclones, but in the North Atlantic and Eastern Pacific, they are
hurricanes.
 
       About 2,000 people are killed by lightning strikes every year. Florida
leads the US in deaths by lightning, with about ten killed each year.
 
       Mount Washington in New Hampshire holds the record for the fastest
recorded wind gust on the land at 231 mph in 1934. It held the overall
mark until higher gusts off the coast of Barrow Island, Australia were
recorded in 1996.
 
            Meteorologists use many tools to predict the weather, including
satellite technology. Doppler weather radar has been used since the
1960s, with weather radar networks forming in the 1980s.
 
       The Maya storm god was named Huracan, which may be the origin
of the word “Hurricane,” although some believe it was derived from
the name of a Taino god.
 
       The Russian research station, Vostok Station, in Antarctica is the site
of the lowest recorded temperature on Earth. On July 21, 1983, the
lonely station hit -128.6 °F.
 
            Hurricanes/cyclones spin counterclockwise in the northern
hemisphere, but cyclones in the southern hemisphere spin clockwise.
This because in the southern hemisphere, winds traveling toward the
equator will move eastward, and winds traveling toward the South
Pole will curve west, which is known as the Coriolis effect.
 
       The largest piece of hail recorded was found in Vivian, South Dakota
on July 23, 2010. It weighed nearly two pounds and was eight inches
in diameter.
 
            First published in 1818, the Farmers’ Almanac was one of the first
publications to make meteorological predictions. Despite skeptics, the
Almanac retains a loyal following.
 
       The Armistice Day Blizzard of 1940 left 154 people dead across the
Upper Midwest, making it one of the worst snowstorms in American
history.
 
            Like a hurricane, a tornado is a rapidly rotating storm with a low-
pressure center. It also rotates clockwise or counterclockwise
depending on which hemisphere it is located in.
 
            The highest recorded temperature on Earth was 134 °F. It was
recorded on July 10, 1913, at Furnace Creek, California, in Death
Valley, on July 10, 1913.
 
       The “Little Ice Age” refers to the climatic period after the Medieval
Warm Period, from the 1500s through the 1800s when the Earth
cooled as much as 3.6 °F.
 
       If you’ve ever hiked high in the Sierra Nevada Mountains, you may
have noticed pink snow. It’s that color because of a type of algae
called chlamydomonas nivalis that thrives in cold environments.
 
            The US experiences more tornadoes than any other country, with
about 1,200 per year. Within the US, more tornadoes happen in the
Plains states, which are known as “Tornado Alley.”