(2): Sources of Climate Data
Posted: Mon Mar 14, 2005 1:58 am -1100
Where can I find climate data?
Hourly climate data which include rain are even harder to find than material data.
IBP offers one year of hourly weather data with WUFI (the file can also be downloaded from the IBP website). These data from 1991 are considered fairly representative for the climate of the Holzkirchen region.
IBP also plans to provide data for one 'cold' and one 'warm' year from the Holzkirchen region which can be used with WUFI.
In addition, weather data for Kassel (Germany), Espoo (Finland), Zurich (Switzerland, warm/cold), Davos (Sw., warm/cold), Locarno (Sw., warm/cold), Grenoble (France), Lisbon (Portugal), 55 locations in USA (warm/cold), 5 locations in Canada, and 12 locations in Norway are provided with the professional versions of WUFI (selected locations are provided with the light versions).
Another source of hourly weather data are the Test Reference Years of the German National Meteorological Service DWD. The 15 files represent typical years as well as severe winters and hot sommers for all climatic regions in Germany. However, since they are primarily intended for heating and energy consumption investigations, they do not contain any rain data.
The Swiss METEOTEST company has developed METEONORM, a program for creating synthetic hourly weather data, based on measured long-term mean values. METEONORM can create files in the TRY format which can be directly read by WUFI. We have not yet systematically compared these synthetic data with measured data for the same locations, but so far they seem to be well usable for hygrothermic simulations.
If the situation of a specific object is to be investigated, it may be necessary to measure the weather in-situ anyway.
Hourly climate data which include rain are even harder to find than material data.
IBP offers one year of hourly weather data with WUFI (the file can also be downloaded from the IBP website). These data from 1991 are considered fairly representative for the climate of the Holzkirchen region.
IBP also plans to provide data for one 'cold' and one 'warm' year from the Holzkirchen region which can be used with WUFI.
In addition, weather data for Kassel (Germany), Espoo (Finland), Zurich (Switzerland, warm/cold), Davos (Sw., warm/cold), Locarno (Sw., warm/cold), Grenoble (France), Lisbon (Portugal), 55 locations in USA (warm/cold), 5 locations in Canada, and 12 locations in Norway are provided with the professional versions of WUFI (selected locations are provided with the light versions).
Another source of hourly weather data are the Test Reference Years of the German National Meteorological Service DWD. The 15 files represent typical years as well as severe winters and hot sommers for all climatic regions in Germany. However, since they are primarily intended for heating and energy consumption investigations, they do not contain any rain data.
The Swiss METEOTEST company has developed METEONORM, a program for creating synthetic hourly weather data, based on measured long-term mean values. METEONORM can create files in the TRY format which can be directly read by WUFI. We have not yet systematically compared these synthetic data with measured data for the same locations, but so far they seem to be well usable for hygrothermic simulations.
If the situation of a specific object is to be investigated, it may be necessary to measure the weather in-situ anyway.