Modern weather forecasting owes its existence to the invention of many recording weather instruments, such as the barometer, hygrometer, weather balloon, and radar. Yet, three major technological developments in particular have led weather forecasting from its days of inception to its current status: the development of instant communications beginning in the late 1800s, remote sensing devices starting in the early 1900s, and computers in the late 1900s.

Weather recording instruments date from the fifteenth century when Leonardo da Vinci invented the hygrometer, an instrument to measure atmospheric humidity. About 1643, Evangelista Torricelli created the barometer to measure air pressure differences. These instruments were improved upon in the eighteenth century by Frenchman Jean Andre Deluc (1727–1817), and have been refined numerous times since then. Weather information has long been displayed in map form. In 1686, English astronomer Edmond Halley (1656–1742) drafted a map to explain regular winds, tradewinds, and...