Runways at OMDB
According to OurAirports data (compiled from AIP and FAA sources), Dubai International Airport has 2 runways: 12L/30R - 4,351 m long (14,275 ft), 60 m wide, asphalt surface; 12R/30L - 4,447 m long (14,590 ft), 60 m wide, asphalt surface.
The longest of them is 12R/30L, at 4,447 m.
Runway headings and wind
The thresholds are oriented as follows: 12L/30R on 120° and 300° magnetic, 12R/30L on 120° and 300° 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 12L/30R axis, wind from the south-west (around 210°) or from the north-east (around 30°) blows perpendicular to the runway and produces the largest crosswind component. Wind from around 120° or 300° 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 OMDB
Weather reports for Dubai International Airport are published under the ICAO code OMDB. 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 OMDB 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 OMDB, check the nearby airports listed below.
Reports always use UTC (the Z suffix). The Asia/Dubai zone stays at GMT+04:00 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 Sharjah International Airport (OMSJ, 17 km), Al Minhad Air Base (Dubai) (OMDM, 25 km), Al Maktoum International Airport (Dubai(Jebel Ali)) (OMDW, 45 km). When no report is available for OMDB, they usually give the best approximation of conditions in the area.