The land surface air temperature record is shown to be adequate for monitoring hemispheric and global scale temperatures. This is only one of a myriad of uses to which station temperatures can be put. For many of the other uses the record is inadequate, but could easily be improved by gaining access to much more data that is collected by all the countries of the world, but not passed on internationally. The situation affects other fields measured at the surface, notably precipitation and mean-sea-level pressure.