Nothing, but nothing, beats a set of human eyeballs
in the location right now to report what the weather is doing.

Human eyeballs can't always be trusted, either. Returning home to a
non-towered field shortly after dark, I was told by Unicom that the
ceiling was 700 feet. But the aircraft just ahead of me reported
breaking out at minimums--200 feet. I, too, broke out at 200 feet.

The observer was at the terminal, half a mile from the end of the
runway.

vince norris