As has been said, read your Ops Specs.

Using a "nearby altimeter" has to in your Ops Specs on an airport by airport basis.

The landing minimums are based on Flight Visibility so the flight crew can determine that. The flight crew is not an approved source of weather data under 121.

The last job, the landing data charts had PA v temp. The job I'm furloughed from we feed the ATIS into a laptop and it won't preceed without a temp. I was also wondering how he was going to depart.

The old school observers have been pretty much replaced by AWOS/ASOS boxes. In the long run the box is cheaper, plus the WX Service gets 24 hour coverage. Their computers do better with more data so the more obs the better. I think the days of floating a ceiling balloon on your hand, removing the wood block and timing it into the clouds are gone.