The primary goal of the USCRN is to provide long-term (50-100 yrs) homogeneous accurate and complete observations of temperature and precipitation. Coupling these observations with existing long-term historical observations will support the detection and attribution of present and future climate change. The USCRN was officially commissioned in January 2004 and the network is scheduled to be completed in 2008 with a total of 114 stations in the Continental USA.

Each USCRN site carefully records the primary measurements of climate – air temperature and precipitation – supplemented with other measurements (e.g., wind speed, solar radiation, surface temperature (infrared), wetness and several engineering variables which monitor the operating conditions of the equipment) and redundancy of critical sensors (i.e., backup instruments) to ensure the most accurate climate change monitoring.

The USCRN provides improved data quality for climate purposes. For example, instead of using just one thermometer, each USCRN station uses three temperature sensing instruments. In addition, soil moisture, soil temperature and relative humidity sensors and measurements are planned after the 114 sites are installed. This paper provides an overview of the USCRN, updates its status for the meteorological and climate science communities and illustrates some of the more unique observations that have been observed by providing some examples of how the network is being used for improved climate monitoring.