The current state of weather forecasting owes much to the many great scientists who studied various aspects of meteorology and developed instruments, theories, and equations to describe the behavior of the atmosphere and oceans. This book introduces some of these great scientists and their achievements. It shows how meteorology progressed from the early 1600s through the 20th century by focusing on the accomplishments of these researchers. Their curiosity about the natural world and in particular about developments in the Earth's atmosphere motivated them to pursue their investigations. We owe much of our current knowledge about the weather to these individuals. An Addendum describes some of the special abilities of birds to deal with the weather.