1 - Why measure the weather?

Summary

Every day, millions of weather measurements are made by people and automated sensors across the globe, on land, over the oceans, in the upper reaches of the atmosphere and from space, providing the raw data essential to supercomputer-based weather forecasting models that are vital to modern economies. This chapter provides an introduction to making weather observations, for all levels of ability and motivation, from weather enthusiasts to professional users. In doing so, the history of early meteorological instruments and observers is covered, together with details of many of the locations around the world where continuous weather and climate observations have been made for well over 100 years.