Shaw Air Force Base (Sumter) (KSSC / SSC)

United States · elevation 241 ft AMSL · 33.9727, -80.4706 · Local time: --:--:-- · UTC time: --:--:--

About Shaw Air Force Base (Sumter)

Shaw Air Force Base (Sumter) is an airport with the ICAO code KSSC and the IATA code SSC. Country: United States. Nearest settlement listed in the database: Sumter. OurAirports classifies it as a medium-sized airport. Its ICAO code starts with the KS prefix, which marks airports in United States. The four-letter code KSSC is used in flight operations and weather reports, while the three-letter IATA code SSC is used for ticketing and baggage handling. The airport reference point sits at 33°58'22"N, 80°28'14"W, at an elevation of 241 ft (73 m) above sea level. The applicable time zone is America/New_York.

Satellite view of KSSC

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 KSSC

ThresholdCourseLengthWidthSurface
04L40°3,052 m (10,014 ft)46 m (150 ft)asphalt
22R220°
04R40°2,443 m (8,014 ft)46 m (150 ft)asphalt
22L220°

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 Shaw Air Force Base (Sumter) - statistics from METAR reports

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

We computed these statistics from 25,656 METAR reports issued by KSSC in 2023-2025. VFR conditions prevailed 85% of the time, MVFR 7% and IFR or LIFR 8%. Best month for VFR flying: June (89% of hours VFR). Most IFR and LIFR hours: December (11%).

Through the day, IFR or LIFR conditions are most frequent around 12:00 UTC (16% of reports at that hour) and least frequent around 20:00 UTC (3%).

Fog (FG) was reported on 20 days a year on average, most often in January. Thunderstorms (TS) occurred on 37 days a year on average, and snowfall on 0.7.

The wind most often blows from NE (45°) - 10% of reports. Calm (0 kt) made up 19% of reports, and gusts of 25 kt or more appeared in 1%. Warmest month: July (average high 33.6 °C); coldest: January (average low 3.0 °C).

Year

Selected period in numbers: 2023-2025

VFR hours
85%
IFR/LIFR hours
8%
Avg high
24.7 °C
Avg low
13.5 °C
Fog days
20
Thunderstorm days
37
Snow days
0.7
Prevailing wind
NE · 10%
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 83%, MVFR 7%, IFR 5%, LIFR 5%JanFebruary: VFR 82%, MVFR 7%, IFR 6%, LIFR 5%FebMarch: VFR 84%, MVFR 8%, IFR 5%, LIFR 4%MarApril: VFR 88%, MVFR 6%, IFR 4%, LIFR 2%AprMay: VFR 84%, MVFR 9%, IFR 5%, LIFR 2%MayJune: VFR 89%, MVFR 6%, IFR 3%, LIFR 2%JunJuly: VFR 88%, MVFR 7%, IFR 3%, LIFR 2%JulAugust: VFR 83%, MVFR 9%, IFR 7%, LIFR 2%AugSeptember: VFR 85%, MVFR 9%, IFR 4%, LIFR 2%SeptOctober: VFR 89%, MVFR 7%, IFR 3%, LIFR 1%OctNovember: VFR 86%, MVFR 6%, IFR 5%, LIFR 3%NovDecember: VFR 80%, MVFR 8%, IFR 6%, LIFR 5%Dec
  • VFR 85%
  • MVFR 7%
  • IFR 5%
  • LIFR 3%
Temperature month by month
Chart: average daily high and low temperature in each month0°5°10°15°20°25°30°35°January: 3.0 … 14.7 °C153JanFebruary: 6.4 … 18.9 °C196FebMarch: 9.1 … 22.0 °C229MarApril: 13.3 … 25.7 °C2613AprMay: 17.3 … 27.9 °C2817MayJune: 20.9 … 31.8 °C3221JunJuly: 23.7 … 33.6 °C3424JulAugust: 22.2 … 31.7 °C3222AugSeptember: 19.1 … 29.4 °C2919SeptOctober: 12.9 … 24.5 °C2413OctNovember: 9.0 … 20.8 °C219NovDecember: 4.7 … 15.8 °C165Dec

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: 5%NNE: 7%NE: 10%ENE: 5%E: 3%ESE: 1%SE: 2%SSE: 3%S: 8%SSW: 8%SW: 7%WSW: 7%W: 6%WNW: 3%NW: 3%NNW: 3%NNNENEENEEESESESSESSSWSWWSWWWNWNWNNWNE 10%

Wind rose

  • 1-10 kt
  • 11-20 kt
  • over 20 kt
  • calm: 19%

Most often: NE - 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
January14.73.083%10%2.70.30.7
February18.96.482%11%2.30.70
March22.09.184%9%2.42.70
April25.713.388%7%220
May27.917.384%7%14.40
June31.820.989%5%160
July33.623.788%5%1120
August31.722.283%9%1.46.50
September29.419.185%6%1.71.40
October24.512.989%4%10.30
November20.89.086%8%1.30.30
December15.84.780%11%200

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 KSSC

According to OurAirports data (compiled from AIP and FAA sources), Shaw Air Force Base (Sumter) has 2 runways: 04L/22R - 3,052 m long (10,014 ft), 46 m wide, asphalt surface; 04R/22L - 2,443 m long (8,014 ft), 46 m wide, asphalt surface.

The longest of them is 04L/22R, at 3,052 m.

Runway headings and wind

The thresholds are oriented as follows: 04L/22R on 40° and 220° magnetic, 04R/22L on 40° and 220° 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 04L/22R axis, wind from the south-east (around 130°) or from the north-west (around 310°) blows perpendicular to the runway and produces the largest crosswind component. Wind from around 40° or 220° 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 KSSC

Weather reports for Shaw Air Force Base (Sumter) are published under the ICAO code KSSC. 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 KSSC 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 KSSC, 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 Sumter Airport (KSMS, 10 km), Mc Entire Joint National Guard Base (Eastover) (KMMT, 31 km), Woodward Field (Camden) (KCDN, 36 km). When no report is available for KSSC, 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 KSSC goes back to 22/12/1941. Pick a date and see every observation from that day.

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