HRRR Meteorology, Energy, and Transmission (MET) Toolkit

The HRRR MET (Meteorology, Energy, and Transmission) Toolkit is the National Laboratory of the Rockies' (NLR) new flagship atmospheric dataset, designed to support comprehensive long-term planning and operations across the entire power sector. Serving as the direct successor to the legacy WIND Toolkit, this dataset provides a continuously updatable, high-fidelity meteorological record covering the Continental United States (CONUS). To ensure a seamless transition for modelers conducting multi-decadal grid integration and capacity expansion studies, the HRRR MET Toolkit is delivered at an hourly resolution on the exact same 2-km horizontal grid as the original WIND Toolkit.

Repackaged from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) operational High-Resolution Rapid Refresh (HRRR) forecasts, the dataset bridges the critical gap between historical industry baselines and modern operational weather data. Spanning from 2015 to the present with planned annual extensions, it overcomes the technical barriers of native weather models by providing spatial regridding, temporal gap-filling, and vertical interpolation at key energy-relevant heights. By delivering highly accurate, validation-backed data across a comprehensive suite of atmospheric variables -including temperature, pressure, humidity, and wind characteristics - the HRRR MET Toolkit provides a highly accessible and strictly standardized foundation for modern power system modeling.