Book excerpt: The finest "cloudscape" painter of his generation, Eric Sloane enjoyed traveling back in time to explore how early American farmers interpreted and embraced weather signs. Examining old records, he learned that most farmers kept daily weather reports, which they referred to year after year to help them decide when to plant, harvest, and perform other farm chores. Combining elements of meteorology and Americana, this book features dozens of Sloane's excellent black-and-white illustrations and sixteen splendid full-color paintings. They complement a text about American weather, and in particular, American skies--from Vermont's swirling clouds and Florida thunderheads to New Mexico cloudscapes and Maine fogs. "You can almost tell where you are by looking upward," he says. In this unique book, he explains why.