Virtual reality surfing of hurricanes

[stiwon]

Could someone help me identify a book which I read in the mid-nineties, and would like to read again? I've looked for it on and off for the last few years and never managed to identify what it was. I really enjoyed it at the time .

The book was set in a near future world which had larger number of hurricanes than the present. It mostly followed a group of storm chasers who would launch drones that flew into the hurricane that transmitted telemetry, allowing them to experience a raging storm through some form of virtual reality. There was some element of danger as the storm chasers had to stay close enough to receive the telemetry feed.

There was then a back story about hurricanes getting larger and larger, and the emergence of a superstorm larger than any which had been seen before, which was the ultimate challenge. The book concluded with a hint that the the storms were created by humans as part of a wider tactic to reduce the number of humans living on the planet.

It had a bit of a Bruce Stirling feel to it, but I don't believe it was one of this books.

Any ideas very welcome!

 

[chrispenycate]

You're saying that this is not 'Heavy Weather' by Bruce Sterling? No, I didn't get the 'hint' - but that might depend on how subtle it was, and remember more of the protagonist being hung up by his feet so his lungs would drain of some nasty disease…

 

[CassFrank]

The VR component reminds me of John Barnes’ Mother of Storms (1994).

 

[Ravensquawk]

I know this is an old question, but answers keep arriving and I read another possible story recently.

I've forgotten some of this nearly novella-length short story read in Analog, but skimming brought some of it back.

"Eyewall" by Rick Shelley (1991) is about people on Trident, an exoplanet, who are researching hurricanes.

The hurricanes, being on an exoplanet, are levels seven and eight, and possibly higher levels, higher than anything on Earth.

It is told in the first person by a newcomer to an already established research base. The story combines a lot of both plot with scenery, and character development and interaction.

For example, it describes both the experience of flying into an exoplanet's hurricanes, and how the established head of the research team resents the fully-authorized newcomer and his mission, and keeps stalling him by calling him into her office for confrontational "conferences".

Also, his research team is attempting to stop the hurricane force with nukes, and bring the results back to Earth. His Japanese student is so disturbed by the human history of nuclear bombs that he eventually commits suicide.

His team has everyone and all flight equipment spending the night in their hangar ready to go, to avoid sabotage by the research leader who resents him.

I don't remember how much flying into the eye, and bomb placement, is done by piloted craft and how much by drones.

It has all the problems, the necessity for the right conditions, the false starts, and the ambiguity of an actual research mission into something unexplored.