Before 1960, weather forecasting was mostly guesswork. Meteorologists studied local clouds and wind, but they had no way to see what was happening hundreds of miles away. A huge storm could be heading toward a city, and nobody would know until it arrived. On April 1, 1960, NASA launched a small satellite called TIROS I into orbit around Earth. TIROS stood for Television Infrared Observation Satellite. It weighed about 270 pounds and carried two tiny television cameras. Those cameras took the first-ever pictures of Earth's weather from space. The images were fuzzy by today's standards, but they were revolutionary. For the first time, scientists could see cloud patterns covering thousands of miles. They could track storms as they formed over the ocean and predict where those storms were heading. TIROS I only worked for 78 days before its cameras stopped. But in that short time, it proved that satellites could watch the weather from above. The idea was so valuable that NASA launched more TIROS satellites right away. Today, dozens of weather satellites orbit Earth at all times. Some hover 22,000 miles above one spot and take pictures every few minutes. Others fly lower and scan the whole planet twice a day. The accurate weather forecasts on our phones exist because of that small satellite. It all started on April Fools' Day, 1960.