Typical meteorological years tailored for high latitudes based on high-resolution reanalysis data

Abstract

This study presents a refined method for constructing Typical Meteorological Year (TMY) weather files in high-latitude regions, using Norway as a case study. We generate municipality-specific TMYs based on the CERRA, a high-resolution (5.5 km) dataset well-suited for Norway’s complex topography and varied climate. Standard TMY methods apply uniform weighting across all months, with heavy emphasis on solar radiation. However, this approach is suboptimal for high latitudes, where winter solar gains are minimal, and temperature is the primary driver of building energy demand. We introduce a modified approach, TMY-NO, which retains conventional multi-variable weighting during summer but shifts to temperature-dominant weighting in winter. This seasonal adjustment improves the thermal representativeness of the TMYs in heating-dominated contexts. Validation against various datasets confirm improved winter temperature accuracy without substantial loss in solar fidelity. A complete set of 358 municipality-level TMYs was produced and adopted as an annex to the Norwegian Standard NS3031.