King Khalid Air Base (Khamis Mushait) (OEKM / KMX)

Saudi Arabia · elevation 6778 ft AMSL · 18.2973, 42.8035 · Local time: --:--:-- · UTC time: --:--:--

About King Khalid Air Base (Khamis Mushait)

King Khalid Air Base (Khamis Mushait) is an airport with the ICAO code OEKM and the IATA code KMX. Country: Saudi Arabia. Nearest settlement listed in the database: Khamis Mushait. OurAirports classifies it as a medium-sized airport. Its ICAO code starts with the OE prefix, which marks airports in Saudi Arabia. The four-letter code OEKM is used in flight operations and weather reports, while the three-letter IATA code KMX is used for ticketing and baggage handling. The airport reference point sits at 18°17'50"N, 42°48'13"E, at an elevation of 6,778 ft (2,066 m) above sea level. The applicable time zone is Asia/Riyadh.

Satellite view of OEKM

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 OEKM

ThresholdCourseLengthWidthSurface
0660°3,800 m (12,467 ft)45 m (148 ft)asphalt
24240°
14140°3,800 m (12,467 ft)45 m (148 ft)asphalt
32320°

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 Khalid Air Base (Khamis Mushait) - statistics from METAR reports

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

We computed these statistics from 25,989 METAR reports issued by OEKM in 2023-2025. VFR conditions prevailed 92% of the time, MVFR 8% and IFR or LIFR <1%. Best month for VFR flying: February (98% of hours VFR). Most IFR and LIFR hours: April (1%).

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

Fog (FG) was reported on 1.4 days a year on average, most often in January. Thunderstorms (TS) occurred on 58 days a year on average, and snowfall practically never.

The wind most often blows from SW (225°) - 11% of reports. Calm (0 kt) made up 27% of reports, and gusts of 25 kt or more appeared in 1%. Warmest month: June (average high 31.4 °C); coldest: December (average low 8.5 °C).

Year

Selected period in numbers: 2023-2025

VFR hours
92%
IFR/LIFR hours
<1%
Avg high
26.3 °C
Avg low
14.7 °C
Fog days
1.4
Thunderstorm days
58
Snow days
0
Prevailing wind
SW · 11%
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 96%, MVFR 3%, IFR <1%, LIFR <1%JanFebruary: VFR 98%, MVFR 2%, IFR 0%, LIFR 0%FebMarch: VFR 90%, MVFR 9%, IFR <1%, LIFR 0%MarApril: VFR 90%, MVFR 9%, IFR 1%, LIFR <1%AprMay: VFR 90%, MVFR 10%, IFR <1%, LIFR 0%MayJune: VFR 93%, MVFR 7%, IFR 0%, LIFR 0%JunJuly: VFR 81%, MVFR 19%, IFR 1%, LIFR 0%JulAugust: VFR 82%, MVFR 18%, IFR <1%, LIFR 0%AugSeptember: VFR 96%, MVFR 4%, IFR 0%, LIFR 0%SeptOctober: VFR 95%, MVFR 5%, IFR 0%, LIFR 0%OctNovember: VFR 96%, MVFR 4%, IFR 0%, LIFR 0%NovDecember: VFR 96%, MVFR 4%, IFR 0%, LIFR 0%Dec
  • VFR 92%
  • MVFR 8%
  • IFR <1%
  • LIFR <1%
Temperature month by month
Chart: average daily high and low temperature in each month0°5°10°15°20°25°30°35°January: 9.2 … 20.9 °C219JanFebruary: 11.7 … 22.7 °C2312FebMarch: 13.6 … 22.8 °C2314MarApril: 15.2 … 25.5 °C2515AprMay: 17.1 … 28.5 °C2917MayJune: 19.0 … 31.4 °C3119JunJuly: 20.0 … 31.4 °C3120JulAugust: 18.5 … 30.5 °C3119AugSeptember: 17.5 … 30.0 °C3017SeptOctober: 14.3 … 25.9 °C2614OctNovember: 11.2 … 23.7 °C2411NovDecember: 8.5 … 21.6 °C228Dec

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%N: 3%NNE: 5%NE: 3%ENE: 6%E: 6%ESE: 3%SE: 1%SSE: 4%S: 9%SSW: 10%SW: 11%WSW: 7%W: 2%WNW: 1%NW: 1%NNW: 1%NNNENEENEEESESESSESSSWSWWSWWWNWNWNNWSW 11%

Wind rose

  • 1-10 kt
  • 11-20 kt
  • over 20 kt
  • calm: 27%

Most often: SW - 11% 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
January20.99.296%<1%10.70
February22.711.798%0%000
March22.813.690%<1%05.70
April25.515.290%1%0.48.50
May28.517.190%<1%0120
June31.419.093%0%020
July31.420.081%1%07.70
August30.518.582%<1%0160
September30.017.596%0%01.70
October25.914.395%0%02.30
November23.711.296%0%020
December21.68.596%0%000

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 OEKM

According to OurAirports data (compiled from AIP and FAA sources), King Khalid Air Base (Khamis Mushait) has 2 runways: 06/24 - 3,800 m long (12,467 ft), 45 m wide, asphalt surface; 14/32 - 3,800 m long (12,467 ft), 45 m wide, asphalt surface.

The longest of them is 06/24, at 3,800 m.

Runway headings and wind

The thresholds are oriented as follows: 06/24 on 60° and 240° magnetic, 14/32 on 140° and 320° 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 06/24 axis, wind from the south-east (around 150°) or from the north-west (around 330°) blows perpendicular to the runway and produces the largest crosswind component. Wind from around 60° or 240° 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 OEKM

Weather reports for King Khalid Air Base (Khamis Mushait) are published under the ICAO code OEKM. 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 OEKM 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 OEKM, check the nearby airports listed below.

Reports always use UTC (the Z suffix). The Asia/Riyadh 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 Abha International Airport (OEAB, 17 km), Jizan Regional Airport / King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Airport (OEGN, 157 km), Sadah Airport (Sa'dah) (OYSH, 177 km). When no report is available for OEKM, they usually give the best approximation of conditions in the area.

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Nearby airports

Looking for a report from a specific day?

The METAR archive for OEKM goes back to 31/12/1982. Pick a date and see every observation from that day.

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