Hello and welcome to Meteowriter, the author website of Kevin Sene.
I’m a scientist and writer on water and climate themes. I’ve written guides to the coast of Cumbria and the Lake District and the Mersey Estuary and its Liverpool, Wirral and Cheshire shores. Others books include a general interest guide to tidal bores and more technical publications on the links between water and climate.
You can read about these books below along with tips on writing and photography and links to blog posts on these themes. I hope that you find the site interesting and just let me know if you have any ideas for future topics.
The Cumbria and Lake District Coast
This book describes places to visit from Morecambe Bay to the Solway Firth, including coastal areas in the Lake District National Park. Visitor attractions include picturesque harbours, stately homes, museums and seaside resorts, plus many less well-known sights such as stone circles and reminders of the Roman Empire. The Lancashire shores of Morecambe Bay and the Scottish shores of the Solway Firth are included too.
Highlights include:
- Places to visit from Fleetwood to the Mull of Galloway
- Sights in Lancaster, Ulverston, Ravenglass, Maryport, Carlisle and Dumfries
- The Roman coastal defences beyond Hadrian’s Wall
- Hidden gems such as tidal bores, lighthouses, and medieval buildings
- Insights into the role of mining in the growth of ports such as Barrow and Workington
- Sea cliffs, beaches and nature reserves around the coastline
- Tips on where to see barnacle geese, seals and ospreys
- Hills and local viewpoints for a bird’s eye view of the coast
- Source-to-sea descriptions of Cumbrian rivers
- Superb photographs of estuaries, wildlife and coastal views
The book is available directly from Troubador Publishing and most bookshops and retailers and you can see some sample pages here. You can also read more about Cumbria on this webpage.
Tidal bores of England, Scotland and Wales
In some estuaries, a spectacular wave travels inland against the river flow on the highest tides. This natural wonder is a tidal bore and, of the hundred or so worldwide, about twenty occur in the UK. This ebook describes why tidal bores occur and ways to improve your chances of seeing one. It also provides brief suggestions for tourist destinations to visit nearby, including places with a maritime or wildlife theme.
The featured tidal bores include the Severn Bore, Arnside Bore and Trent Aegir. Topics discussed include:
- Viewing tips for the featured tidal bores including suggested viewpoints and indicative timings
- Brief descriptions of more than ten other tidal bores around the coast of the UK
- Tips on finding out tide times and how the tides affect tidal bores
- Insights into how historic river engineering works for shipping have affected tidal bores
- Brief description of sights in Gloucester, Cardiff, Chester, Liverpool, Ulverston, Dumfries, and Hull
- Ideas for visits to nearby seaside resorts, nature reserves and tourist attractions
- Visit suggestions for picturesque harbours, Roman ruins and sea cliffs
- Places to see seals and migrating waterbirds such as barnacle geese
The ebook is available from most on line retailers and this Troubador Publishing webpage gives details. If you would like to see more images of tidal bores around the UK, I’ve set up a Tidal Bores webpage and posted this video about the Mersey Tidal Bore.
The Mersey Estuary: A Travel Guide
This guide describes places to visit around the Mersey Estuary and its history, environment and wildlife. Highlights include:
- Places to visit from Warrington to Formby Point and Wirral
- Sights in Liverpool, Cheshire, Port Sunlight and New Brighton
- Walk and cycle route descriptions in Liverpool, Wirral and Cheshire
- Hidden gems such as lighthouses, medieval buildings and outdoor art
- Information on nature reserves and places for a bird’s eye view of the estuary
- Tips on where to see seals, waterbirds and red squirrels
- Insights into the history of the Port of Liverpool and the Mersey ferries
- Background on the geology, environment and wildlife of the estuary
Just click on one of the images if you would like to see some higher resolution examples of pages from the book.
The book is available directly from Troubador Publishing and most bookshops and there is an ebook too. This short video says more about the book and the Mersey Estuary and this post gives some insights into how I went about writing it. If you’d like to know more about the Mersey Estuary I’ve published several blog posts on this webpage.
Technical books
I’ve also written technical books on flash floods, hydrometeorology and flood warning and forecasting, all published by Springer. Typical readers include practitioners and researchers and they are useful for university courses too.
Topics vary between books but taken together include flood warning, flood forecasting, hydropower, irrigation, water resources, droughts, rainfall forecasting, urban flooding, tidal prediction, coastal flooding, probabilistic forecasting, emergency response, decision support systems and water quality.
Some common themes include how variations in rainfall and climate affect river flows, lake levels and other aspects of the natural environment, and how we can understand, predict and reduce the risks.
Writing and photography
If you are interested in writing and photography, I’ve written up some thoughts on organising research for nonfiction books and photographing waterbirds.
I’ve also written posts on my approaches to photographic post processing and video making and describe writing The Mersey Estuary: A Travel Guide here.
If you would like to see more of my photography, I’ve posted many higher resolution examples from my books on the Alamy stock photography website along with selected images on other themes. Topics include the Mersey Estuary, Cumbria, tidal bores and Scotland.
These are mainly intended for use in newspapers, magazines and other media and for anyone interested in making large prints, such as for wall art and posters. However, feel free to browse through these too if you would simply like to see more images on these topics.
