THE USA TODAY WEATHER ALMANAC 1995 ...

THE USA TODAY WEATHER ALMANAC 1995 by Jack Williams (Vintage: $14; 390 pp., illustrated, paperback original). Like the newspaper, “The USA Today Weather Almanac” offers lots of graphs, charts and generalizations. The book provides useful-sounding data for readers planning trips: Coastal fog at Los Angeles International airport causes flights to be delayed on 9% of winter mornings. Most of the “Almanac” is devoted to climatic profiles of 200 U.S. and 50 foreign cities. With an annual average of 35 wet days, 22 days over 90 degrees and 6 days with thunderstorms, Los Angeles sounds more appealing than Fargo, N.D. (75 days with snow, 180 days below 32) or Riyadh, Saudi Arabia (205 days over 90). But these statistical averages don’t offer much of a basis for predictions: In an average January, the L.A. Civic Center gets 3.7 inches of rain over six days.