St. Paul Pioneer Press

If you're serious about researching the weather at a potential vacation or retirement spot, Bloomington engineer James L. Kennedy has your numbers.

Kennedy, a Bloomington engineer, is the author of "How's the Weather? Find Your Outdoors Comfort Paradise in the U.S." (ASK Analytic Services, $29.95). Composed almost entirely of tables and isoline charts, the book uses technical data on dew points, precipitation and mean radiant temperatures in the sun and shade to help readers — "comfort seeking individuals," Kennedy says — find optimum "leisure thermal comfort."

"Why should you settle for the temperature, when you can very quickly find out what the thermal comfort is?" Kennedy says.

Readers should expect to invest quite a bit of time deciphering the book and tracking down the pertinent numbers, however. "It's a very easy book, but one has to read the introduction," Kennedy says.

Beth Gauper, Travel Editor
St. Paul Pioneer Press, Sunday, May 26, 2002
345 Cedar Street
St. Paul, MN 55101
Phone: 651/228-5425
E-mail: bgauper@pioneerpress.com