Accuracy of Weather Data in Long-Term Pavement Performance Program Database

Abstract

To provide accurate climatic data for pavements under the Long-Term Pavement Performance (LTPP) Program, a climatic database was developed in 1992 and subsequently revised and expanded in 1998. In the development of this database, up to five nearby weather stations were selected for each test site. Pertinent weather data for the selected weather stations were obtained from the U.S. National Climatic Data Center and the Canadian Climatic Center. With a 1/ R2 weighting scheme, site-specific climatic data were derived from the nearby weather station data. The derived data were referred to as “virtual”weather data. To evaluate the effect of environmental factors on pavement performance and design, automated weather stations (AWS) were installed at LTPP Specific Pavement Study Projects 1, 2, and 8 to collect on-site weather data. Since the virtual weather data were developed for all LTPP test sites and will be used for future pavement performance studies, it is essential that the derived virtual data be accurate and representative of the actual onsite climatic conditions. The availability of the AWS weather data has provided an opportunity to evaluate whether virtual weather data can be used to represent on-site weather conditions. Daily temperature data and monthly temperature and precipitation data were used in this experiment. On the basis of the comparisons made between the virtual and onsite measured (AWS) data, it appears that climatic data derived from nearby weather stations using the 1/R2 weighting scheme estimate the actual weather data reasonably well and thus can be used to represent on-site weather conditions in pavement research and design.