Pakistan · elevation 492 ft AMSL
· 30.7581, 72.2825
Rafiqui Air Base (Shorkot) is an airport with the ICAO code OPRQ. Country: Pakistan. Nearest settlement listed in the database: Shorkot. OurAirports classifies it as a medium-sized airport. Its ICAO code starts with the OP prefix, which marks airports in Pakistan. No IATA code is assigned, which is typical for airports without scheduled traffic. The airport reference point sits at 30°45'29"N, 72°16'57"E, at an elevation of 492 ft (150 m) above sea level. The applicable time zone is Asia/Karachi.
Aerial imagery showing the runway and apron layout - the zoom is matched to the longest runway.
| Threshold | Course | Length | Width | Surface |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 15 | 150° | 3,048 m (10,000 ft) | 49 m (160 ft) | asphalt |
| 33 | 330° | |||
| 15R | 150° | 2,932 m (9,621 ft) | 30 m (100 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.
According to OurAirports data (compiled from AIP and FAA sources), Rafiqui Air Base (Shorkot) has 2 runways: 15/33 - 3,048 m long (10,000 ft), 49 m wide, asphalt surface; 15R/33L - 2,932 m long (9,621 ft), 30 m wide, asphalt surface.
The longest of them is 15/33, at 3,048 m.
The thresholds are oriented as follows: 15/33 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 15/33 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 Rafiqui Air Base (Shorkot) are published under the ICAO code OPRQ. 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 OPRQ 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 OPRQ, check the nearby airports listed below.
Reports always use UTC (the Z suffix). The Asia/Karachi zone stays at GMT+05:00 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 Faisalabad International Airport (OPFA, 96 km), Okara Cantonment Airstrip (OPOK, 103 km), Multan International Airport (OPMT, 103 km). When no report is available for OPRQ, they usually give the best approximation of conditions in the area.
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