The Mechanistic-Empirical Pavement Design Guide (ME-PDG) is currently designed for use in the United States and its possessions. The necessary climatic files required to run the ME-PDG can be downloaded from this web site. 

To install the necessary hourly climatic database files (*.hcd) on your computer, download the appropriate zip files for your state from this site. In the directory where the ME-PDG program (dg2k2.exe) is installed, create a subdirectory labeled \hcd . Unzip the *.hcd for your state into this directory. The ME-PDG is capable of creating virtual weather stations from several nearby existing stations. Often these nearby stations are located in neighboring states. Therefore it may be necessary to download additional states hcd files, in addition to the state for which the analysis is being run. To work properly the hcd file must reside in a directory similar to c:\dg2002\hcd\00000.hcd

Climate data is no longer available.

A guide to the file formats used by the Integrated Climatic Model numerical engine can be found here.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF SPONSORSHIP
This work was sponsored by the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials, in cooperation with the Federal Highway Administration, and was conducted in the National Cooperative Highway Research Program, which is administered by the Transportation Research Board of the National Research Council.

DISCLAIMER
This is the final draft as submitted by the research agency. The opinions and conclusions expressed or implied in the report are those of the research agency. They are not necessarily those of the Transportation Research Board, the National Research Council, the Federal Highway Administration, the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials, or the individual states participating in the National Cooperative Highway Research Program.