McGhee Tyson Airport (Knoxville/Maryville) (KTYS / TYS)

United States · elevation 981 ft AMSL · 35.8110, -83.9940 · Local time: --:--:-- · UTC time: --:--:--

About McGhee Tyson Airport (Knoxville/Maryville)

McGhee Tyson Airport (Knoxville/Maryville) is an airport with the ICAO code KTYS and the IATA code TYS. Country: United States. Nearest settlement listed in the database: Knoxville/Maryville. OurAirports classifies it as a large airport. Its ICAO code starts with the KT prefix, which marks airports in United States. The four-letter code KTYS is used in flight operations and weather reports, while the three-letter IATA code TYS is used for ticketing and baggage handling. The airport reference point sits at 35°48'40"N, 83°59'38"W, at an elevation of 981 ft (299 m) above sea level. The applicable time zone is America/New_York.

Satellite view of KTYS

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 KTYS

ThresholdCourseLengthWidthSurface
05L50°3,048 m (10,000 ft)46 m (150 ft)asphalt
23R230°
05R50°2,743 m (9,000 ft)46 m (150 ft)asphalt
23L230°

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 McGhee Tyson Airport (Knoxville/Maryville) - statistics from METAR reports

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

We computed these statistics from 26,274 METAR reports issued by KTYS in 2023-2025. VFR conditions prevailed 87% of the time, MVFR 8% and IFR or LIFR 5%. Best month for VFR flying: June (92% of hours VFR). Most IFR and LIFR hours: January (11%).

Through the day, IFR or LIFR conditions are most frequent around 13:00 UTC (10% of reports at that hour) and least frequent around 00:00 UTC (2%).

Fog (FG) was reported on 21 days a year on average, most often in January. Thunderstorms (TS) occurred on 49 days a year on average, and snowfall on 8.7.

The wind most often blows from SW (225°) - 11% of reports. Calm (0 kt) made up 22% of reports, and gusts of 25 kt or more appeared in 2%. Warmest month: July (average high 31.8 °C); coldest: January (average low -0.5 °C).

Year

Selected period in numbers: 2023-2025

VFR hours
87%
IFR/LIFR hours
5%
Avg high
21.9 °C
Avg low
11.2 °C
Fog days
21
Thunderstorm days
49
Snow days
8.7
Prevailing wind
SW · 11%
Gusts ≥ 25 kt
2%

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 76%, MVFR 13%, IFR 6%, LIFR 5%JanFebruary: VFR 79%, MVFR 12%, IFR 5%, LIFR 4%FebMarch: VFR 88%, MVFR 7%, IFR 3%, LIFR 2%MarApril: VFR 90%, MVFR 7%, IFR 2%, LIFR 1%AprMay: VFR 88%, MVFR 8%, IFR 3%, LIFR 1%MayJune: VFR 92%, MVFR 6%, IFR 1%, LIFR 1%JunJuly: VFR 91%, MVFR 7%, IFR 2%, LIFR 1%JulAugust: VFR 91%, MVFR 7%, IFR 1%, LIFR 1%AugSeptember: VFR 90%, MVFR 5%, IFR 2%, LIFR 3%SeptOctober: VFR 91%, MVFR 5%, IFR 2%, LIFR 1%OctNovember: VFR 86%, MVFR 8%, IFR 3%, LIFR 3%NovDecember: VFR 77%, MVFR 14%, IFR 4%, LIFR 5%Dec
  • VFR 87%
  • MVFR 8%
  • IFR 3%
  • LIFR 2%
Temperature month by month
Chart: average daily high and low temperature in each month−5°0°5°10°15°20°25°30°35°January: -0.5 … 8.5 °C8−1JanFebruary: 3.9 … 15.1 °C154FebMarch: 6.4 … 18.6 °C196MarApril: 11.3 … 22.6 °C2311AprMay: 15.3 … 25.1 °C2515MayJune: 19.1 … 29.7 °C3019JunJuly: 21.9 … 31.8 °C3222JulAugust: 20.2 … 30.3 °C3020AugSeptember: 17.2 … 28.1 °C2817SeptOctober: 10.8 … 22.9 °C2311OctNovember: 6.7 … 17.5 °C187NovDecember: 2.4 … 12.0 °C122Dec

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: 8%NNE: 8%NE: 7%ENE: 4%E: 2%ESE: 1%SE: 1%SSE: 1%S: 2%SSW: 7%SW: 11%WSW: 7%W: 8%WNW: 3%NW: 2%NNW: 3%NNNENEENEEESESESSESSSWSWWSWWWNWNWNNWSW 11%

Wind rose

  • 1-10 kt
  • 11-20 kt
  • over 20 kt
  • calm: 22%

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
January8.5-0.576%11%325
February15.13.979%9%1.311.3
March18.66.488%4%1.720.3
April22.611.390%3%1.730
May25.115.388%4%28.70
June29.719.192%2%08.30
July31.821.991%2%1.7110
August30.320.291%2%1.370
September28.117.290%5%34.30
October22.910.891%3%20.70
November17.56.786%6%20.30.7
December12.02.477%9%1.70.31.3

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 KTYS

According to OurAirports data (compiled from AIP and FAA sources), McGhee Tyson Airport (Knoxville/Maryville) has 2 runways: 05L/23R - 3,048 m long (10,000 ft), 46 m wide, asphalt surface; 05R/23L - 2,743 m long (9,000 ft), 46 m wide, asphalt surface.

The longest of them is 05L/23R, at 3,048 m.

Runway headings and wind

The thresholds are oriented as follows: 05L/23R on 50° and 230° magnetic, 05R/23L on 50° and 230° 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 05L/23R axis, wind from the south-east (around 140°) or from the north-west (around 320°) blows perpendicular to the runway and produces the largest crosswind component. Wind from around 50° or 230° 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 KTYS

Weather reports for McGhee Tyson Airport (Knoxville/Maryville) are published under the ICAO code KTYS. 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 KTYS 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 KTYS, check the nearby airports listed below.

Reports always use UTC (the Z suffix). The America/New_York zone is GMT-05:00 in winter and GMT-04:00 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 Knoxville Downtown Island Airport (KDKX, 20 km), Gatlinburg-Pigeon Forge Airport (Sevierville) (KGKT, 42 km), Monroe County Airport (Madisonville) (KMNV, 46 km). When no report is available for KTYS, they usually give the best approximation of conditions in the area.

METAR Academy

Something unclear in the KTYS report?

Step-by-step guides - with examples, charts and calculators.

Advertisement

ICAO4U

Pass your ICAO Aviation English exam - 100% online

ICAO Level 4, 5 or 6 for PPL(A)/CPL(A)/ATPL(A): aviation vocabulary, radio phraseology, pronunciation and standard/emergency flight scenarios. Buy through this link and get a 10% discount.

Check ICAO4U

Nearby airports

Looking for a report from a specific day?

The METAR archive for KTYS goes back to 31/12/1900. Pick a date and see every observation from that day.

Open METAR history →

Live weather from KTYS on your website

Run a flying club, a training organisation or an airfield website? Embed a ready-made panel with the current KTYS METAR - flight category, wind, visibility, temperature and pressure, refreshed automatically. The configurator lets you pick language, theme and units; you paste the code once.

Configure the widget Free, no account and no display limit.