Andrew Pitman is an international authority on the role of land surface processes in the climate system including their influence on regional rainfall and temperature extremes. His findings have transformed our appreciation of land cover from a passive boundary condition to a dynamic and influential component of the climate system, including climate extremes. As a direct consequence of Pitman’s work, there is now an accepted role of land cover change in regional climate projections, and a new field devoted to utilising land cover to mitigate the worst impacts of regional climate extremes.