The regional atmospheric climate model HIRHAM has been applied to the Arctic. Simulations for the wholeyear 1990 and for an ensemble of winter months (January of 1985-1995) have been performed. The comparisonof the simulations with observational data analyses shows that the general spatial patterns are in good agreementwith the data, in both the vertical structure and the annual cycle. For an additional validation of the model results,a multivariate classification of large-scale circulation patterns has been applied on the January ensemble modelsimulations.