Sumburgh Airport (Lerwick, Shetland) (EGPB / LSI)

United Kingdom · elevation 20 ft AMSL · 59.8789, -1.2956 · Local time: --:--:-- · UTC time: --:--:--

About Sumburgh Airport (Lerwick, Shetland)

Sumburgh Airport (Lerwick, Shetland) is an airport with the ICAO code EGPB and the IATA code LSI. Country: United Kingdom. Nearest settlement listed in the database: Lerwick, Shetland. OurAirports classifies it as a medium-sized airport. Its ICAO code starts with the EG prefix, which marks airports in United Kingdom. The four-letter code EGPB is used in flight operations and weather reports, while the three-letter IATA code LSI is used for ticketing and baggage handling. The airport reference point sits at 59°52'44"N, 1°17'44"W, at an elevation of 20 ft (6 m) above sea level. The applicable time zone is Europe/London.

Satellite view of EGPB

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

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Runways of EGPB

ThresholdCourseLengthWidthSurface
06H60°543 m (1,781 ft)44 m (144 ft)asphalt
24H240°
0990°1,498 m (4,915 ft)44 m (144 ft)asphalt
27270°
15150°1,424 m (4,672 ft)43 m (141 ft)asphalt
33330°

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 Sumburgh Airport (Lerwick, Shetland) - statistics from METAR reports

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

We computed these statistics from 25,959 METAR reports issued by EGPB in 2023-2025. VFR conditions prevailed 59% of the time, MVFR 27% and IFR or LIFR 15%. Best month for VFR flying: September (68% of hours VFR). Most IFR and LIFR hours: May (22%).

Through the day, IFR or LIFR conditions are most frequent around 02:00 UTC (21% of reports at that hour) and least frequent around 14:00 UTC (9%).

Fog (FG) was reported on 24 days a year on average, most often in May. Thunderstorms (TS) occurred on 1 days a year on average, and snowfall on 18.

The wind most often blows from W (270°) - 10% of reports. Calm (0 kt) made up 2% of reports, and gusts of 25 kt or more appeared in 8%. Warmest month: July (average high 15.1 °C); coldest: January (average low 4.0 °C).

Year

Selected period in numbers: 2023-2025

VFR hours
59%
IFR/LIFR hours
15%
Avg high
10.6 °C
Avg low
7.3 °C
Fog days
24
Thunderstorm days
1
Snow days
18
Prevailing wind
W · 10%
Gusts ≥ 25 kt
8%

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 50%, MVFR 39%, IFR 8%, LIFR 2%JanFebruary: VFR 61%, MVFR 30%, IFR 7%, LIFR 2%FebMarch: VFR 56%, MVFR 29%, IFR 8%, LIFR 7%MarApril: VFR 59%, MVFR 29%, IFR 6%, LIFR 6%AprMay: VFR 57%, MVFR 21%, IFR 9%, LIFR 14%MayJune: VFR 62%, MVFR 23%, IFR 8%, LIFR 7%JunJuly: VFR 59%, MVFR 21%, IFR 9%, LIFR 11%JulAugust: VFR 61%, MVFR 22%, IFR 9%, LIFR 8%AugSeptember: VFR 68%, MVFR 19%, IFR 7%, LIFR 6%SeptOctober: VFR 57%, MVFR 27%, IFR 10%, LIFR 7%OctNovember: VFR 61%, MVFR 28%, IFR 7%, LIFR 5%NovDecember: VFR 54%, MVFR 34%, IFR 9%, LIFR 3%Dec
  • VFR 59%
  • MVFR 27%
  • IFR 8%
  • LIFR 7%
Temperature month by month
Chart: average daily high and low temperature in each month0°5°10°15°20°January: 4.0 … 6.6 °C74JanFebruary: 4.5 … 7.5 °C84FebMarch: 4.0 … 7.2 °C74MarApril: 5.5 … 9.0 °C96AprMay: 8.0 … 11.6 °C128MayJune: 9.7 … 13.3 °C1310JunJuly: 11.6 … 15.1 °C1512JulAugust: 11.5 … 14.9 °C1512AugSeptember: 10.4 … 14.0 °C1410SeptOctober: 8.1 … 11.3 °C118OctNovember: 5.2 … 8.8 °C95NovDecember: 5.1 … 8.2 °C85Dec

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%N: 9%NNE: 3%NE: 4%ENE: 3%E: 4%ESE: 5%SE: 5%SSE: 7%S: 10%SSW: 7%SW: 7%WSW: 8%W: 10%WNW: 6%NW: 5%NNW: 5%NNNENEENEEESESESSESSSWSWWSWWWNWNWNNWW 10%

Wind rose

  • 1-10 kt
  • 11-20 kt
  • over 20 kt
  • calm: 2%

Most often: W - 10% 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
January6.64.050%10%007
February7.54.561%9%001.3
March7.24.056%15%2.703.3
April9.05.559%12%0.700.3
May11.68.057%22%4.30.30
June13.39.762%15%400
July15.111.659%20%3.700
August14.911.561%17%30.30
September14.010.468%13%2.300
October11.38.157%16%1.700
November8.85.261%12%1.304.7
December8.25.154%12%00.31.3

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 EGPB

According to OurAirports data (compiled from AIP and FAA sources), Sumburgh Airport (Lerwick, Shetland) has 3 runways: 06H/24H - 543 m long (1,781 ft), 44 m wide, asphalt surface; 09/27 - 1,498 m long (4,915 ft), 44 m wide, asphalt surface; 15/33 - 1,424 m long (4,672 ft), 43 m wide, asphalt surface.

The longest of them is 09/27, at 1,498 m.

Runway headings and wind

The thresholds are oriented as follows: 06H/24H on 60° and 240° magnetic, 09/27 on 90° and 270° magnetic, 15/33 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 06H/24H 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 EGPB

Weather reports for Sumburgh Airport (Lerwick, Shetland) are published under the ICAO code EGPB. 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 EGPB 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 EGPB, check the nearby airports listed below.

Reports always use UTC (the Z suffix). The Europe/London zone is GMT+00:00 in winter and GMT+01:00 in summer - that is the shift to apply to the time in the report to get local time at the airport.

The closest airports in the database, measured in a straight line from the reference point, are Lerwick / Tingwall Airport (Lerwick, Shetland Islands) (EGET, 35 km), Fair Isle Airport (EGEF, 43 km), Whalsay Airstrip (Whalsay, Shetlands) (EGEH, 59 km). When no report is available for EGPB, they usually give the best approximation of conditions in the area.

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Looking for a report from a specific day?

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