MetarTaf Decoder

METAR and TAF in plain English, in seconds

King Mswati III International Airport (Mpaka) (FDSK / SHO)

Eswatini · elevation 1092 ft AMSL · -26.3586, 31.7169 · Local time: --:--:-- · UTC time: --:--:--

About King Mswati III International Airport (Mpaka)

King Mswati III International Airport (Mpaka) is an airport with the ICAO code FDSK and the IATA code SHO. Country: Eswatini. Nearest settlement listed in the database: Mpaka. OurAirports classifies it as a large airport. Its ICAO code starts with the FD prefix, which marks airports in Eswatini. The four-letter code FDSK is used in flight operations and weather reports, while the three-letter IATA code SHO is used for ticketing and baggage handling. The airport reference point sits at 26°21'31"S, 31°43'01"E, at an elevation of 1,092 ft (333 m) above sea level. The applicable time zone is Africa/Mbabane.

Satellite view of FDSK

Aerial imagery showing the runway and apron layout - the zoom is matched to the longest runway.

Open the satellite view in Google Maps

Runways of FDSK

ThresholdCourseLengthWidthSurface
0220°3,600 m (11,811 ft)60 m (197 ft)asphalt
20200°

The course is derived from the runway designator (number × 10), not from a survey - the actual magnetic bearing can differ by a few degrees.

Declared distances (TORA, TODA, ASDA, LDA) are published in the national AIP - they are not part of this table.

Climate at King Mswati III International Airport (Mpaka) - statistics from METAR reports

What the METAR reports from FDSK for 2023-2025 show - counted hour by hour.

We computed these statistics from 14,830 METAR reports issued by FDSK in 2023-2025. VFR conditions prevailed 81% of the time, MVFR 18% and IFR or LIFR 1%. Best month for VFR flying: June (95% of hours VFR). Most IFR and LIFR hours: December (3%).

IFR and LIFR conditions are rare here at any time of day.

Fog (FG) was reported on 12 days a year on average, most often in August. Thunderstorms (TS) occurred on 32 days a year on average, and snowfall practically never.

The wind most often blows from S (180°) - 17% of reports. Calm (0 kt) made up 1% of reports, and gusts of 25 kt or more appeared in <1%. Warmest month: January (average high 30.0 °C); coldest: July (average low 10.5 °C).

Year

Selected period in numbers: 2023-2025

VFR hours
81%
IFR/LIFR hours
1%
Avg high
27.3 °C
Avg low
16.5 °C
Fog days
12
Thunderstorm days
32
Snow days
0
Prevailing wind
S · 17%
Gusts ≥ 25 kt
<1%

Day counts are for the selected period (for all years - the yearly average).

Flight categories month by month
Bar chart: share of VFR, MVFR, IFR and LIFR hours in each month0%25%50%75%100%January: VFR 77%, MVFR 22%, IFR 1%, LIFR <1%JanFebruary: VFR 72%, MVFR 27%, IFR 1%, LIFR 0%FebMarch: VFR 77%, MVFR 22%, IFR 1%, LIFR <1%MarApril: VFR 82%, MVFR 17%, IFR 1%, LIFR <1%AprMay: VFR 90%, MVFR 9%, IFR <1%, LIFR 1%MayJune: VFR 95%, MVFR 4%, IFR <1%, LIFR 1%JunJuly: VFR 90%, MVFR 9%, IFR <1%, LIFR 1%JulAugust: VFR 86%, MVFR 12%, IFR 1%, LIFR 1%AugSeptember: VFR 82%, MVFR 17%, IFR 1%, LIFR 1%SeptOctober: VFR 72%, MVFR 27%, IFR <1%, LIFR <1%OctNovember: VFR 74%, MVFR 24%, IFR 2%, LIFR <1%NovDecember: VFR 67%, MVFR 30%, IFR 2%, LIFR <1%Dec
  • VFR 81%
  • MVFR 18%
  • IFR 1%
  • LIFR <1%
Temperature month by month
Chart: average daily high and low temperature in each month0°5°10°15°20°25°30°January: 21.0 … 30.0 °C3021JanFebruary: 21.1 … 29.9 °C3021FebMarch: 20.5 … 29.4 °C2920MarApril: 17.8 … 27.0 °C2718AprMay: 14.2 … 25.7 °C2614MayJune: 11.2 … 24.7 °C2511JunJuly: 10.5 … 24.8 °C2510JulAugust: 13.1 … 26.1 °C2613AugSeptember: 16.0 … 27.6 °C2816SeptOctober: 16.7 … 26.8 °C2717OctNovember: 18.9 … 28.4 °C2819NovDecember: 20.3 … 28.9 °C2920Dec

The top of each bar is the average daily high, the bottom the average daily low (usually around dawn), in °C.

Wind rose: how often the wind blows from each of 16 directions5%10%15%20%N: 11%NNE: 15%NE: 10%ENE: 5%E: 4%ESE: 2%SE: 3%SSE: 7%S: 17%SSW: 6%SW: 3%WSW: 2%W: 2%WNW: 1%NW: 1%NNW: 2%NNNENEENEEESESESSESSSWSWWSWWWNWNWNNWS 17%

Wind rose

  • 1-10 kt
  • 11-20 kt
  • over 20 kt
  • calm: 1%

Most often: S - 17% of reports. Each petal shows the direction the wind blows from (as in METAR) - the longer it is, the more often. Colour shows wind speed.

Month by month

MonthAvg high °CAvg low °CVFRIFR/LIFRFog daysThunderstorm daysSnow days
January30.021.077%1%05.10
February29.921.172%1%0.720
March29.420.577%1%0.44.40
April27.017.882%1%0.41.90
May25.714.290%1%1.10.80
June24.711.295%1%2.40.80
July24.810.590%1%1.600
August26.113.186%2%2.800
September27.616.082%1%0.71.50
October26.816.772%1%0.74.10
November28.418.974%2%040
December28.920.367%3%0.77.60

Temperatures are averages of daily highs and lows. Day counts are the average per month over the period.

More in the METAR Academy: VFR, MVFR, IFR, LIFR flight categories, fog in METAR

Source: routine METAR reports from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet archive (Iowa State University), 2023-2025. Flight categories use the FAA thresholds, widely used as a convention. A day counts when it has at least 12 reports. These are statistics of past conditions - not a forecast or a substitute for a pre-flight briefing.

Runways at FDSK

According to OurAirports data (compiled from AIP and FAA sources), King Mswati III International Airport (Mpaka) has one runway: 02/20 - 3,600 m long (11,811 ft), 60 m wide, asphalt surface.

Runway headings and wind

The thresholds are oriented as follows: 02/20 on 20° and 200° magnetic. A threshold designator is its magnetic heading divided by ten (ICAO Annex 14), so the runway axis can be read straight off the numbers.

For the 02/20 axis, wind from the east (around 110°) or from the west (around 290°) blows perpendicular to the runway and produces the largest crosswind component. Wind from around 20° or 200° acts along the runway, as a headwind or a tailwind. The decoder on this page computes those components automatically from the current METAR.

METAR and TAF for FDSK

Weather reports for King Mswati III International Airport (Mpaka) are published under the ICAO code FDSK. A METAR is an observation of current conditions, usually issued every 30 or 60 minutes; a TAF is a forecast for the airport area, typically covering 9 to 30 hours.

The decoder breaks the FDSK report down into its parts: wind direction and speed including gusts and variability, visibility (including CAVOK and directional minimum visibility), weather phenomena by WMO code, cloud layers with their bases, temperature and dew point, QNH pressure, and the resulting flight category - VFR, MVFR, IFR or LIFR - using FAA thresholds.

Not every airport issues its own reports; many smaller airfields have no weather station. If no current data is available for FDSK, check the nearby airports listed below.

Reports always use UTC (the Z suffix). The Africa/Mbabane zone stays at GMT+02:00 year-round, so converting to local time is always the same shift.

The closest airports in the database, measured in a straight line from the reference point, are Siteki Airport (FDST, 26 km), Simunye Airport (FDSM, 28 km), Tambankulu Airport (FDTM, 35 km). When no report is available for FDSK, they usually give the best approximation of conditions in the area.

METAR Academy

Something unclear in the FDSK report?

Step-by-step guides - with examples, charts and calculators.

How to read a METARHow to read a TAFVFR/IFR flight categoriesAll guides →

Advertisement

ICAO4U

Pass your ICAO Aviation English exam - 100% online

ICAO Level 4, 5 or 6 for PPL(A)/CPL(A)/ATPL(A): aviation vocabulary, radio phraseology, pronunciation and standard/emergency flight scenarios. Buy through this link and get a 10% discount.

Check ICAO4U

Advertisement

VFR Map Europe

VFR Map Europe - your aeronautical chart in the cockpit

Moving GPS map, airspace and zones, airspace alerts and offline use. Plan your VFR route online for free and send it to the app. The online map is free.

Check VFR Map

Nearby airports

Looking for a report from a specific day?

The METAR archive for FDSK goes back to 01/10/2014. Pick a date and see every observation from that day.

Open METAR history →

Live weather from FDSK on your website

Run a flying club, a training organisation or an airfield website? Embed a ready-made panel with the current FDSK METAR - flight category, wind, visibility, temperature and pressure, refreshed automatically. The configurator lets you pick language, theme and units; you paste the code once.

Configure the widget Free, no account and no display limit.