Runways at KIAD
According to OurAirports data (compiled from AIP and FAA sources), Washington Dulles International Airport has 4 runways: 01C/19C - 3,505 m long (11,500 ft), 46 m wide, asphalt surface; 01L/19R - 2,865 m long (9,400 ft), 46 m wide, asphalt surface; 01R/19L - 3,505 m long (11,500 ft), 46 m wide, asphalt surface; 12/30 - 3,201 m long (10,501 ft), 46 m wide, asphalt surface.
The longest of them is 01C/19C, at 3,505 m.
Runway headings and wind
The thresholds are oriented as follows: 01C/19C on 10° and 190° magnetic, 01L/19R on 10° and 190° magnetic, 01R/19L on 10° and 190° magnetic, 12/30 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 01C/19C axis, wind from the east (around 100°) or from the west (around 280°) blows perpendicular to the runway and produces the largest crosswind component. Wind from around 10° or 190° 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 KIAD
Weather reports for Washington Dulles International Airport are published under the ICAO code KIAD. 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 KIAD 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 KIAD, 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 Leesburg Executive Airport (KJYO, 17 km), Washington Manassas Harry P. Davis Field (KHEF, 25 km), Davison Army Air Field (Fort Belvoir) (KDAA, 35 km). When no report is available for KIAD, they usually give the best approximation of conditions in the area.