In recent years, the evaluation of the efficiency of performance of solar energy units and the digital simulation of the thermal system of a building are not done by using long term averages of weather data as input, but preferably are done by using data sets representative of the climatological features of the site that are generated for this purpose. The present study is concerned with the generation of such a representative data set for Damascus zone, mainly by following a method that has been proposed by Hall et al. This data set, which includes global solar radiation data and 10 other meteorological parameters referring to ambient temperature, dew point, relative humidity, atmospheric pressure, wind velocity and direction, global cloudless degree and cloud type and daily sunshine duration, has been characterized by Hall as a "Typical Meteorological Year". The typical meteorological year was generated from the available hourly meteorological data recorded during the period 1981-1990, using the Filkenstein-Schafer statistical method. (C) 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.