Heavy Weather

Bruce Sterling, one of the founding fathers of the cyberpunk genre, now presents a novel of vivid imagination and invention that proves his talent for creating brilliant speculative fiction is sharper than ever. Forty years from now, Earth's climate has been drastically changed by the greenhouse effect.  Tornadoes of almost unimaginable force roam the open spaces of Texas.  And on their trail are the Storm Troupers: a ragtag band of computer experts and atmospheric scientists who live to hack heavy weather -- to document it and spread the information as far as the digital networks will stretch, using virtual reality to explore the eye of the storm.  Although it's incredibly addictive, this is no game.  The Troupers' computer models suggest that soon an F-6 will strike -- a tornado of an intensity that exceeds any existing scale; a storm so devastating that it may never stop.  And they're going to be there when all hell breaks loose.
Forty years into the future, the Storm Troupe is a stalwart band devoted to chasing monster storms caused by the Greenhouse Effect that has laid waste to the Southwestern badlands--including the F-6, a tornado so horrific it has no precedent. But nobody truly comprehends this storm until they are swept into its deadly funnel.