United States · elevation 40 ft AMSL
· 37.9408, -75.4623
Wallops Flight Facility Airport (Wallops Island) is an airport with the ICAO code KWAL and the IATA code WAL. Country: United States. Nearest settlement listed in the database: Wallops Island. OurAirports classifies it as a small airport. Its ICAO code starts with the KW prefix, which marks airports in United States. The four-letter code KWAL is used in flight operations and weather reports, while the three-letter IATA code WAL is used for ticketing and baggage handling. The airport reference point sits at 37°56'27"N, 75°27'44"W, at an elevation of 40 ft (12 m) above sea level. The applicable time zone is America/New_York.
Aerial imagery showing the runway and apron layout - the zoom is matched to the longest runway.
| Threshold | Course | Length | Width | Surface |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 04 | 40° | 2,666 m (8,748 ft) | 46 m (150 ft) | asphalt |
| 22 | 220° | |||
| 10 | 100° | 2,440 m (8,005 ft) | 61 m (200 ft) | asphalt |
| 28 | 280° | |||
| 17 | 170° | 1,465 m (4,808 ft) | 46 m (150 ft) | asphalt |
| 35 | 350° |
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.
What the METAR reports from KWAL for 2023-2025 show - counted hour by hour.
We computed these statistics from 25,871 METAR reports issued by KWAL in 2023-2025. VFR conditions prevailed 80% of the time, MVFR 11% and IFR or LIFR 9%. Best month for VFR flying: November (91% of hours VFR). Most IFR and LIFR hours: June (13%).
Through the day, IFR or LIFR conditions are most frequent around 11:00 UTC (12% of reports at that hour) and least frequent around 19:00 UTC (5%).
Fog (FG) was reported on 24 days a year on average, most often in January. Thunderstorms (TS) occurred on 13 days a year on average, and snowfall on 6.
The wind most often blows from S (180°) - 14% of reports. Calm (0 kt) made up 8% of reports, and gusts of 25 kt or more appeared in 5%. Warmest month: July (average high 30.0 °C); coldest: January (average low 0.3 °C).
Day counts are for the selected period (for all years - the yearly average).
The top of each bar is the average daily high, the bottom the average daily low (usually around dawn), in °C.
Most often: S - 14% 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 | Avg high °C | Avg low °C | VFR | IFR/LIFR | Fog days | Thunderstorm days | Snow days |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| January | 8.5 | 0.3 | 82% | 11% | 3.8 | 0 | 2.8 |
| February | 10.4 | 1.7 | 82% | 10% | 2.3 | 0.3 | 1.3 |
| March | 14.6 | 5.2 | 81% | 12% | 2.3 | 0 | 0 |
| April | 19.6 | 10.2 | 84% | 9% | 2 | 1.3 | 0 |
| May | 22.1 | 14.6 | 78% | 13% | 2 | 1.3 | 0 |
| June | 27.8 | 19.7 | 76% | 13% | 2 | 2.7 | 0 |
| July | 30.0 | 23.1 | 81% | 3% | 2.3 | 4.3 | 0 |
| August | 28.0 | 20.5 | 75% | 6% | 1.3 | 1.7 | 0 |
| September | 25.5 | 18.5 | 68% | 11% | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| October | 21.1 | 11.6 | 86% | 3% | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| November | 15.6 | 6.2 | 91% | 4% | 1.3 | 0 | 0 |
| December | 10.4 | 1.6 | 82% | 9% | 3 | 0 | 1.9 |
Temperatures are averages of daily highs and lows. Day counts are the average per month over the period.
According to OurAirports data (compiled from AIP and FAA sources), Wallops Flight Facility Airport (Wallops Island) has 3 runways: 04/22 - 2,666 m long (8,748 ft), 46 m wide, asphalt surface; 10/28 - 2,440 m long (8,005 ft), 61 m wide, asphalt surface; 17/35 - 1,465 m long (4,808 ft), 46 m wide, asphalt surface.
The longest of them is 04/22, at 2,666 m.
The thresholds are oriented as follows: 04/22 on 40° and 220° magnetic, 10/28 on 100° and 280° magnetic, 17/35 on 170° and 350° 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 04/22 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.
Weather reports for Wallops Flight Facility Airport (Wallops Island) are published under the ICAO code KWAL. 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 KWAL 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 KWAL, 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 Accomack County Airport (Melfa) (KMFV, 42 km), Salisbury Ocean City Wicomico Regional Airport (KSBY, 45 km), Tangier Island Airport (KTGI, 49 km). When no report is available for KWAL, they usually give the best approximation of conditions in the area.
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The METAR archive for KWAL goes back to 01/10/1966. Pick a date and see every observation from that day.
Run a flying club, a training organisation or an airfield website? Embed a ready-made panel with the current KWAL METAR - flight category, wind, visibility, temperature and pressure, refreshed automatically. The configurator lets you pick language, theme and units; you paste the code once.
