Lessons learnt from responses of Austria, Belgium, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Georgia, Germany, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Netherlands, Norway, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Sweden, and Switzerland:

• In general NMHSs have realized the necessity of data rescue; however a number of them are not aware in detail of the amount of data slumbering in their archives. On the other hand a number of countries provided detailed insight about existing data (digitized and non-digitized).
• Most of the countries have a free data policy and are willing to share their data, only for some countries data policy is still a stumbling block.
• The highest priority of data to be rescued is on temperature and precipitation, followed by wind, snow, humidity, sunshine, clouds and air pressure.
• There are more monthly data than daily data available.
• Not all countries responded to our request, especially those outside Europe.