Abstract. An overview of model building with periodic autoregression (PAR) models is given emphasizing the three stages of model development: identification, estimation and diagnostic checking. New results on the distribution of residual autocorrelations and suitable diagnostic checks are derived. The validity of these checks is demonstrated by simulation. The methodology discussed is illustrated with an application. It is pointed out that the PAR approach to model development offers some important advantages over the more general approach using periodic autoregressive moving-average (PARMA) models.I have written S functions for the periodic autoregressive modelling methods discussed in my paper. Complete S style documentation for each function is provided. To obtain, e-mail the following message: send pear from S to statlib@temper.stat.cmu.edu or use anonymous ftp to connect to fisher.stats.uwo.ca and download the shar archive file, pear.sh, located in the directory pub/pear.