New NOAA dataset helps improve building resiliency and infrastructure design
NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI) is now providing a new dataset tailored to the specific needs of architects and engineers. Called the Typical Meteorological Year (TMY) product, this dataset was developed in response to feedback from architects and engineers in need of “typical” weather data to inform building and infrastructure design.
What is TMY?
The TMY product provides location-specific meteorological data that represents a “typical” year for a given site, helping architects and engineers understand historical weather patterns while planning for the future.
To do this, TMY selects the most representative version of each month based on long-term climate data and then uses those months to create one "typical" calendar year that reflects realistic day-to-day and seasonal weather patterns. Along with historical observations, TMY incorporates future projections by adjusting historical records with modeled climate scenarios through 2100.
TMY includes data for all 50 U.S. states, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands, with downloadable formats such as CSV and EnergyPlus Weather files. Key climate variables include:
- Temperature – to optimize insulation, heating and cooling needs
- Solar radiation – to guide window placement and energy-efficient design
- Wind speed – to select durable materials and design natural ventilation
- Precipitation – to plan roof slopes, drainage and water management
“Typical” Vs. “Normal”
Unlike the U.S. Climate Normals, which describe long-term average conditions over a fixed 30-year period and serve as a standard reference for what is normal for a region, TMY is designed to represent a single “typical year” of weather that preserves realistic day-to-day sequences for a given location. While Climate Normals are mainly used to understand general climate patterns and compare conditions over time, TMY is used more for building design and energy modeling where a continuous, realistic year of weather is needed.
A Collaborative Development with Industries
The TMY product was shaped through ongoing engagement with architecture and engineering professionals, including the American Society of Civil Engineers and the American Institute of Architects. Feedback from these users helped NCEI refine the interface, determine the most useful variables, and provide data in novel formats that support easy integration into design and modeling tools.
By integrating historical data and future climate projections through 2100, TMY enables professionals to anticipate how changing weather conditions may affect buildings and infrastructure, helping communities stay safer and allowing architects to design critical structures such as hospitals, schools, bridges and stormwater systems that can handle weather impacts more effectively.
Turning Data into Action
To make TMY easy to access and use, NCEI designed an interactive, point-and-click web interface and made the data available for download in multiple format types. Users can customize the output calculation and use the information in modeling tools to support informed, risk-aware decision-making.
Through improving access to and the functionality of NOAA’s environmental data products and services, NCEI is helping professionals turn information into action for a future with safer communities and a stronger, more resilient economy. To learn more about the TMY product and to access the data, visit the TMY product page. More information on NCEI’s impact on U.S. industries, including an architecture and engineering hub that links to featured products, is available on NCEI’s Our Impact page.
