Humans have documented weather history for hundreds of years. Reverend John Campanius made the first official weather observations in the New World in 1644, and the technology has continued to advance throughout time.
It was on this day, April 27th, in 1898 that the first Weather Bureau kite was launched in Topeka, Kansas. By the end of that first year, 16 additional kite stations were put in place.
Each kite string held as many as seven kites at one time during an observation, and each kite was 8 feet long, 7 feet wide, and 3 feet high. Kite weather observations ended in 1933 as the technique was replaced by more advanced technology. Today, satellites are used and accessed every 5 to 6 minutes.