Where does the climate data come from?
From NASA POWER, a global dataset of daily weather and solar radiation. MapToNap reads the daily record from 2014 to 2023 for the coordinates of your site and averages it by month.
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Climate analysis
Climate analysis for architecture
The climate of your site in the same graphic language as the rest of the board: monthly highs and lows, rainfall, a climograph, solar radiation and the prevailing winds, from ten years of daily NASA POWER records for the coordinates of the site. Then see how it plays out around the buildings with wind and heat drawings.
NASA POWER 2014–2023Any coordinatesWind, sun, rain, heatSVG · PDF · PNG
What you can make
The drawings, and what each one shows
Temperature year (Pro)
Mean daily high and low for every month, with the daily range.
Precipitation year (Pro)
Monthly rainfall in millimetres, with the wettest and driest month.
Annual climate climograph (Pro)
Temperature and rainfall on one chart, the classic climograph for a site analysis.
Solar radiation (Pro)
Monthly shortwave radiation on the ground in MJ/m² per day.
Prevailing wind (Pro)
The prevailing directions from ten years of NASA POWER wind data, drawn around the blocks of the site. No CFD.
Wind simulation and 3D wind (Max)
A 2D lattice Boltzmann simulation around the real buildings on your graphics card, and 3D streamlines at 2, 14 and 28 m.
Urban heat · estimate (Pro)
A relative heat index from what covers the ground (roofs, paving, trees, water), smoothed over about 60 m. Not a temperature, and the drawing says so.
Four seasons at 2 pm (Max)
A simplified feels-like map in sun, shade and wind for each season, as an early-design reference rather than a comfort model.
Examples
Straight out of MapToNap
Untouched exports from real sites. Free drawings carry a watermark; Pro and Max drawings are marked.
Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors, available under the Open Database Licence. The images are MapToNap output.
Guide
How to read climate data for a design
- Start with temperature. The months above and below comfort tell you whether the building mainly has to keep heat in, keep it out, or both. A large daily range favours thermal mass and night ventilation.
- Look at rain by month. Heavy seasonal rain shapes roofs, overhangs, drainage and outdoor space; a long dry season shapes planting and water storage.
- Put them together in a climograph. Warm and wet, warm and dry, cold and wet: the combination points to the right family of passive strategies.
- Use the sun and the wind. Solar radiation shows when to collect and when to shade; prevailing winds show where to shelter outdoor space and how to ventilate.
- Then go local. Regional data describe the climate, not the microclimate. Wind around buildings, shade and ground cover change what people feel on the site, which is what the wind, heat and seasons drawings estimate.
Frequently asked questions
Before you start
Is it accurate for my exact site?
It describes the regional climate on a coarse global grid, which is what a site analysis climate section needs. It does not capture the microclimate of a street or a courtyard; for that, see the wind, heat and seasons drawings, which are marked as estimates.
Do I need an EPW weather file?
Not for these drawings. For energy or daylight simulation in dedicated software you will still use a weather file such as EPW.
Does the wind simulation replace a wind study?
No. It is a simplified 2D lattice Boltzmann simulation for early design, run in your browser. It shows sheltered areas and corridors; it does not replace an engineering wind assessment.
Is it free?
You can try MapToNap free: four 2D drawings (roads, land use, green and water, urban fabric) and one 3D drawing, with a watermark and no sign-up. Without the watermark and with all 68 analyses there are one-time passes: Pro €7.99 or Max €12.99 for 30 days, or a year of Max for €49. Nothing renews automatically.
Do I need to install anything? Does it work on a phone?
No installation and no setup. MapToNap runs in the browser on any computer, tablet or phone, iPhone or Android: open maptonap.com/app, type an address and press Generate. 3D drawings and simulations run smoothest on a computer.
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