Iraq · elevation 114 ft AMSL
· 33.2625, 44.2346
Baghdad International Airport / New Al Muthana Air Base is an airport with the ICAO code ORBI and the IATA code BGW. Country: Iraq. Nearest settlement listed in the database: Baghdad. OurAirports classifies it as a large airport. Its ICAO code starts with the OR prefix, which marks airports in Iraq. The four-letter code ORBI is used in flight operations and weather reports, while the three-letter IATA code BGW is used for ticketing and baggage handling. The airport reference point sits at 33°15'45"N, 44°14'05"E, at an elevation of 114 ft (35 m) above sea level. The applicable time zone is Asia/Baghdad.
Aerial imagery showing the runway and apron layout - the zoom is matched to the longest runway.
| Threshold | Course | Length | Width | Surface |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 15L | 150° | 4,000 m (13,124 ft) | 60 m (197 ft) | asphalt |
| 33R | 330° | |||
| 15R | 150° | 3,301 m (10,830 ft) | 45 m (148 ft) | asphalt |
| 33L | 330° |
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.
What the METAR reports from ORBI for 2023-2025 show - counted hour by hour.
We computed these statistics from 25,472 METAR reports issued by ORBI in 2023-2025. VFR conditions prevailed 73% of the time, MVFR 20% and IFR or LIFR 7%. Best month for VFR flying: August (86% of hours VFR). Most IFR and LIFR hours: December (23%).
Through the day, IFR or LIFR conditions are most frequent around 05:00 UTC (16% of reports at that hour) and least frequent around 15:00 UTC (4%).
Fog (FG) was reported on 17 days a year on average, most often in December. Thunderstorms (TS) occurred on 19 days a year on average, and snowfall practically never.
The wind most often blows from NW (315°) - 19% of reports. Calm (0 kt) made up 1% of reports, and gusts of 25 kt or more appeared in <1%. Warmest month: August (average high 45.2 °C); coldest: February (average low 6.2 °C).
Day counts are for the selected period (for all years - the yearly average).
The top of each bar is the average daily high, the bottom the average daily low (usually around dawn), in °C.
Most often: NW - 19% 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 | Avg high °C | Avg low °C | VFR | IFR/LIFR | Fog days | Thunderstorm days | Snow days |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| January | 17.7 | 6.6 | 59% | 16% | 6 | 0.7 | 0 |
| February | 18.2 | 6.2 | 71% | 7% | 2 | 1 | 0 |
| March | 24.1 | 12.2 | 76% | 4% | 1 | 5.1 | 0 |
| April | 31.3 | 17.7 | 76% | 4% | 0 | 3.7 | 0 |
| May | 36.6 | 22.4 | 74% | 6% | 0 | 3.3 | 0 |
| June | 42.9 | 26.8 | 86% | 3% | 0 | 1.1 | 0 |
| July | 45.0 | 29.4 | 84% | 4% | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| August | 45.2 | 29.1 | 86% | 2% | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| September | 40.6 | 24.4 | 85% | 1% | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| October | 33.3 | 18.5 | 71% | 5% | 0 | 0.3 | 0 |
| November | 25.1 | 12.5 | 63% | 10% | 1.3 | 3 | 0 |
| December | 18.9 | 7.6 | 48% | 23% | 7 | 0.7 | 0 |
Temperatures are averages of daily highs and lows. Day counts are the average per month over the period.
According to OurAirports data (compiled from AIP and FAA sources), Baghdad International Airport / New Al Muthana Air Base has 2 runways: 15L/33R - 4,000 m long (13,124 ft), 60 m wide, asphalt surface; 15R/33L - 3,301 m long (10,830 ft), 45 m wide, asphalt surface.
The longest of them is 15L/33R, at 4,000 m.
The thresholds are oriented as follows: 15L/33R on 150° and 330° magnetic, 15R/33L on 150° and 330° 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 15L/33R axis, wind from the south-west (around 240°) or from the north-east (around 60°) blows perpendicular to the runway and produces the largest crosswind component. Wind from around 150° or 330° acts along the runway, as a headwind or a tailwind. The decoder on this page computes those components automatically from the current METAR.
Weather reports for Baghdad International Airport / New Al Muthana Air Base are published under the ICAO code ORBI. 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 ORBI 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 ORBI, check the nearby airports listed below.
Reports always use UTC (the Z suffix). The Asia/Baghdad zone stays at GMT+03:00 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 Qasr Tall Mihl Airport (Baghdad) (ORQT, 5 km), Al Taji Army Air Field (ORTI, 29 km), Al Iskandariyah Airport (ORAI, 33 km). When no report is available for ORBI, they usually give the best approximation of conditions in the area.
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Check VFR MapThe METAR archive for ORBI goes back to 04/01/1937. Pick a date and see every observation from that day.
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