CHUWD-H v1.0: a comprehensive historical hourly weather database for U.S. urban energy system modeling

Chenghao Wang; Chengbin Deng; Henry Horsey; Janet L Reyna; Di Liu; Sarah Feron; Raúl R Cordero; Jiyun Song; Robert B Jackson

doi:10.1038/s41597-024-04238-4

CHUWD-H v1.0: a comprehensive historical hourly weather database for U.S. urban energy system modeling

Sci Data. 2024 Dec 18;11(1):1383. doi: 10.1038/s41597-024-04238-4.

Authors

Chenghao Wang^{1

2}, Chengbin Deng^{3

4}, Henry Horsey⁵, Janet L Reyna⁵, Di Liu^{3

4}, Sarah Feron^{6

7}, Raúl R Cordero⁶, Jiyun Song⁸, Robert B Jackson^{9

10

11}

Affiliations

¹ School of Meteorology, University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK, USA. [email protected].
² Department of Geography and Environmental Sustainability, University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK, USA. [email protected].
³ Department of Geography and Environmental Sustainability, University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK, USA.
⁴ Center for Spatial Analysis, University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK, USA.
⁵ National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Golden, CO, USA.
⁶ Knowledge Infrastructure, University of Groningen, Wirdumerdijk 34, 8911, CE, Leeuwarden, Netherlands.
⁷ Universidad de Santiago de Chile. Av. Bernardo O'Higgins, 3363, Santiago, Chile.
⁸ State Key Laboratory of Water Resources Engineering and Management, Wuhan University, Wuhan, China.
⁹ Department of Earth System Science, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA.
¹⁰ Woods Institute for the Environment, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA.
¹¹ Precourt Institute for Energy, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA.

Abstract

Reliable and continuous meteorological data are crucial for modeling the responses of energy systems and their components to weather and climate conditions, particularly in densely populated urban areas. However, existing long-term datasets often suffer from spatial and temporal gaps and inconsistencies, posing great challenges for detailed urban energy system modeling and cross-city comparison under realistic weather conditions. Here we introduce the Historical Comprehensive Hourly Urban Weather Database (CHUWD-H) v1.0, a 23-year (1998-2020) gap-free and quality-controlled hourly weather dataset covering 550 weather station locations across all urban areas in the contiguous United States. CHUWD-H v1.0 synthesizes hourly weather observations from stations with outputs from a physics-based solar radiation model and a reanalysis dataset through a multi-step gap filling approach. A 10-fold Monte Carlo cross-validation suggests that the accuracy of this gap filling approach surpasses that of conventional gap filling methods. Designed primarily for urban energy system modeling, CHUWD-H v1.0 should also support historical urban meteorological and climate studies, including the validation and evaluation of urban climate modeling.

Abstract

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