Let's face it, many of us are fans of The Weather Channel. And today is the 20th anniversary of this 24-hour cable weather network that's based in Atlanta, Georgia.

When The Weather Channel started in the early 1980s, cable television was just taking off. CNN had started 24-hour broadcasts in 1980, setting a precedent for an all-information cable network. One of the founders of The Weather Channel was John Coleman, formerly a weathercaster on ABC's Good Morning America, who was fed up with the short amount of time network news devoted to national weather. Early on, The Weather Channel offered itself free to major cable systems to help build a subscriber base, and the by late 1980s the network was profitable.

After starting with just three million subscribers, The Weather Channel today is one of only twelve cable networks that reach over 85 million U.S. households, and it's available in 97 percent of all homes that have cable TV. The Weather Channel also operates a 24-hour, all-weather network in Latin America that reaches nearly ten million homes there.