In the United States the earliest weather diary was kept by the Chaplain of the Swedish colonization force in what is now Wilmington, Delaware Weather diaries were the primary source of weather information in the United States through the War of 1812. Benjamin Franklin and presidents George Washington and Thomas Jefferson kept weather diaries. In 1814 the first government directive to gather weather data was issued by the US Army Surgeon General to the medical corps at forts and barracks. In 1838 Pennsylvania was the first of about three states to appropriate funding for a climatological network. The program lasted a relatively short time. The Smithsonian Institution began gathering climatological data nationwide in 1847.

The National Weather Service (NWS) was created and administered by the US Army Signal Corps in 1870. By 1875, the first successful state weather service was established in Iowa followed by  Missouri in 1877.

The NWS was then transferred to the US Department of Agriculture in 1890 and the cooperative network was established in 1891 . The network now consists of about 10,900 observing sites in the United States and about 203 sites in New Mexico not all currently active. Almost all record daily rainfall and snowfall, and all but 1,350 record daily maximum and minimum temperatures, usually at their homes. Others record river stages, evaporation, and soil temperature. Most  observers are unpaid. The forms they fill out today called B-91 look very similar to the forms used by the cooperative personal in 1890.

A larger number of the cooperators were farm and ranch families that continue today to take weather observations. One family has been observing and recording the weather in their area since 1893.

The Weather Bureau transferred into the US Department of Commerce in 1941 and the WRPC (Weather Records Processing Center) moved in January to Asheville, North Carolina in 1952. The name was change to the National Data Climate Center (NCDC) and is the storage location for all the cooperative data collected from over 200 years ago to the present.The National Climatic Data Center is one of three National Data Centers under the National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service (NESDIS). NCDC  and the Weather Bureau are within  National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). NOAA, part of  the U.S. Department of Commerce, conducts research and gathers data about the oceans, atmosphere, space, and sun, and applies this knowledge to products and services that benefit Americans.

The Nation Weather Service establishes new cooperative weather observation site, installs the instrumentation, and trains the cooperators. The climate  data collected by the cooperators is mailed to the NWS which in turn sends it to NCDC where the data is entered into a computer system and products generated from the data made available to the public through paper publications  and since 1995 through the internet. Weather data also enters the internet system through the ROSA system  maintained by the Weather Bureau and they in cooperation with NCDC publishes yesterdays weather on the internet.