Daniel Wunder and Morgan Stahl, two members of the Industry Proving Grounds (IPG) contract team, attended the Climate Symposium at the American Institute of Architects (AIA) Aspire Conference offsite link in Asheville, NC, on September 17 and 18, 2024. Wunder and Stahl joined the conference as representatives of the team developing the IPG’s Typical Meteorological Year (TMY) product. TMY is an easy-to-use interactive map that produces a dataset of “typical” monthly weather conditions across the US, which are based on current and historical records as well as future climate projections. Laura Stevens, a research scientist for the National Climate Assessment at the North Carolina Institute for Climate Studies offsite link, discussed the ongoing development of TMY during her presentation on the Fifth National Climate Assessment.
The Aspire Conference was hosted in part by local state chapters of the AIA. NCEI team members engaged attendees on their thoughts, questions, or recommendations regarding the TMY product. The team also invited AIA members to be a part of the TMY beta tester group so that they could provide feedback throughout the product development process.
The TMY product is being developed as a part of the IPG initiative, which is focused on improving access to environmental information so that industry professionals can better assess climate risk and empower rapid decision-making and long-term planning. Architecture, which is closely tied to civil engineering building codes, is a key component of NCEI’s work under the IPG. The IPG aims to connect professionals in architecture and engineering with current and new NCEI products containing environmental data that will enable them to make educated decisions on improvements to building codes and design practices, and thereby establish a more climate-resilient future.
The TMY interface will allow users to customize a dataset suited for specific design needs in various scenarios across the US. The architecture and engineering sector can use climate projections to aid in the design of buildings and structures that account for climate change in their design specifications. The AIA as well as other members of the architecture and engineering sector requested a tool offering TMY’s functionality during a 2022 listening session with NCEI. Users highlighted that TMY will be highly useful, particularly in building energy simulations, analyzing annual variability, and evaluating the impact that future climate scenarios will have on design.