WHAT ARE

TMY & AMY

FILES?
WHITE PAPER
A Summary of Weather Files and Climate Data Input for Modeling
HISTORY AND TYPES OF CLIMATE DATA

History and Types of Climate Data

Modern building codes were not enacted until about 1905 in the U.S., and these relied on climate zones
created by dividing the country into less than a dozen areas based on generalized weather conditions.
Although improved somewhat, these zones have not substantially changed in the past 100 years and are
still very much in use today. While useful in the gross sizing of HVAC capacities, these zones lack the
precision required for any type of energy modeling or analysis.

TMY FILES
TMY (Typical Meteorological Year) files were first created by the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE)
National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) in 1981 [an advancement of the TRY (Test Reference
Year) Files created in 1976 by the National Climatic Data Center] as a more localized and comprehensive
indicator of the climate to further assist in the capacity planning of HVAC systems.

TMY files are created by looking at 15 – 30 years of hourly data at the site in question (usually a weather
station) and selecting, in series, the most typical January, February, …and so on of all available years
based on a weighted average of eleven weather variables with the selected months knitted together into
one synthetic year of typical months.

The initial TMY file was subsequently replaced by two primary types of TMY files

• TMY2 files that use 30 years of data replaced the initial TMY file in about 1990, with an enhanced
weighted average selection method. Approximately 1,000 TMY2 files were created from weather
station data from 1961 – 1990 mostly from airport-based stations. These served as the default
EnergyPlus weather files until late in 2010.

• TMY3 files that use 15 years of data were introduced in 2005 with a higher emphasis on solar
radiation variables and also included precipitation as a variable. While statistically stable files
require 30 years of data, the TMY3 utilized only 15 because that is the period where adequate
satellite input was available – effectively increasing the availability and accuracy of the solar
radiation data. In late 2010, the DOE EnergyPlus converted to this file type as the default. TMY3
files are available for about 2,500 sites primarily in the United States and Europe.

Other condensed weather data sets used for the same purpose include IWEC2 (developed by ASHRAE),
CWEC (developed by the WASUN simulation laboratory), and CTZ2 [developed by the California Energy
Commission (CEC)].

CAUTIONS WITH TMY FILES

1. They miss the extremes. They do a good job capturing typical conditions but (by design) do not
show the extremes. This becomes increasingly important as the movement toward energy
efficient design drives heating and cooling systems to be only as big as they have to be –

Page 1 | Weather Analytics www.weatheranalytics.com

HISTORY AND TYPES OF CLIMATE DATA

introducing a vulnerability to being overtaxed with extreme conditions they were not designed to
handle.

2. They are not likely to be local. Unless your site is near an airport, they do not necessarily
represent the climate at your site. They are created from where the measurements were – which
generally means airports – and the applicability of the climate in a file reduces with both distance
and terrain change away from that station.

3. They provide sparse international coverage. Because there are only a few thousand weather
stations that have been operating with greater than 50% completeness over the last 15 – 30
years, there are only a few thousand TMY files available and those tend to be concentrated in
North America and Europe.

4. They are not all current and built with all the years. Not all TMY files are constructed with 15 –
30 years of data and some may have been constructed as much as 20 years ago, therefore
representing the typical climate for the 15 – 30 years prior to that date.

Since the results of models and simulations are only as accurate as the assumptions of the heating and
cooling loads placed on the building, the actual content and limitations of the TMY files need to be well
understood, particularly with the move to energy efficient design.

AMY FILES
TMY files cannot be used to monitor, manage or confirm the actual performance of a building. This
requires AMY (Actual Meteorological Year) files, which are actual hourly data sets over the last year or
time period where energy use data is available, but put into the same formats as a TMY file. AMY files
can also be used as input alternatives to TMY files if selected for years with more extreme weather to
cross-check designs under stress. Since daily or hourly comparisons require more precision than general
design demands, AMY files need to be as close to the building as possible.

SOME CAUTIONS WITH AMY FILES

1. Location is essential. AMY files may have been created from a local airport station. The
applicability of the weather conditions in a file reduces with both distance and terrain change
away from that station, so it is best to get actual data as close as possible to the building site.

2. Modeling systems have a variety of expectations. Care must be taken to match the AMY file
with the requirements of the modeling tool being used in both format and duration. Some will not
take partial years and each has their own way of handling files that cross year boundaries. Some
require all files to start with the month of January; others do not.

Ongoing monitoring and performance optimizing will require continued access to on- or near-site actual
weather conditions and this may extend to precision forecasted conditions to drive predictive control. It is
good if this is as local to the building as possible and from the same site or at least calibrated to the

Page 2 | Weather Analytics www.weatheranalytics.com

HISTORY AND TYPES OF CLIMATE DATA

source of the AMY file(s) used in the modeling. Note that energy consumption is not just driven by
external air temperature. Humidity, wind speed and direction, direct and indirect solar radiation, and
reflected heat from the ground and surroundings need to be considered as well.

SOURCE DATA FOR TMY AND AMY WEATHER FILES

There are two primary sources for climate data:

Direct Observations: Weather Stations (ground, buoys, balloons)

• Generally accurate but measure a limited number of variables (5 – 10)

• Only ~3,000 worldwide operating for 30+ years and only 1,000 of them with >80% completeness

• Only ~4,000 today operate with >80% completeness

• Only a few hundred measure solar radiation satellites. Those that do require significant post
processing to integrate cloud image data with top of atmosphere radiation.

• Only widely available and in sufficient quality for the last 15 years

Modeled data: Reanalysis data

• Gap free data uniformly distributed across region or globe with all variables

• Area based, gridded data representing the average over the grid

• Regional (North America) files can have grid resolution of 1 – 5 km. Global datasets are 35 km.

• Mesoscale model data

• Full or partial atmospheric models run for individual sites

A TMY or AMY file can be created from either of these sources independently or in combination. Nearly all
publicly available TMY files are from weather station sites (mostly airports) with the solar radiation
variables added from tables of post-processed satellite observations for that site. Some modeling
programs have their own internal TMY files generated using a mesoscale modeling technique. It is
possible to create TMY and AMY files localized to sites away from weather stations by integrating the
weather station observations with gridded reanalysis data.

Page 3 | Weather Analytics www.weatheranalytics.com

ABOUT WEATHER ANALYTICS

About Weather Analytics

Weather Analytics answers global intelligence questions by providing statistically stable climate and
forecast data formed by an extensive collection of historical, current and forecasted weather content,
coupled with proprietary analytics methodologies. Weather Analytics finds, assembles and formats
weather data so that our clients don’t have to. We offer more than 580 weather variables for enhanced
weather intelligence and risk mitigation. Our climate data is delivered in an easily accessible format that
allows customers to focus their efforts on solving business problems versus aggregating and cleansing
data from raw sources, which offer very limited value on their own. Worldwide historical, current and
forecasted weather conditions are available for purchase at www.WeatherAnalytics.com.

Contact Information

Weather Analytics
5845 Richmond Hwy, Suite 600
Alexandria, VA 22303
TEL. 703 778 4772
FAX. 703 778 3520
info@weatheranalytics.com
www.WeatherAnalytics.com

Page 4 | Weather Analytics www.weatheranalytics.com