KDEC Runway 18/36 — Decatur Airport
5,298 × 150 ft asphalt · true headings 179° / 359° · field elevation 682 ft
Runway 18/36 at Decatur Airport (KDEC) in Decatur, IL is 5,298 ft long and 150 ft wide, asphalt, with true headings 179° and 359°. Over 2005–2025 the wind gave runway 18 the headwind 54.6% of the time and runway 36 45.4%, with a crosswind above 15 kt in 2.2% of wind hours. KDEC has no digital ATIS, so the active runway is not known; the wind-favored end and the ATIS Alerts prediction are estimates.
Runway 18/36 — current operational status
What the D-ATIS, the tower and current NOTAMs state now. The published FAA baseline (NASR) is a separate line in the overview below and does not reflect temporary closures.
- No received NOTAM closes or restricts this runway, but the NOTAM stream has no complete initial load and the airport has no tower or D-ATIS feed. No current closure information.
Sources: Published FAA baseline (OurAirports/NASR record) · FAA NOTAMs. Runway NOTAMs stream live from the FAA NOTAM Management Service (SWIM); the official text is shown verbatim below the card. Always confirm with a current briefing.
No received NOTAM currently names runway 18/36 at KDEC. NOTAMs are received live from the FAA NOTAM Management Service through SWIM and recorded since Sep 19, 2026; a NOTAM issued before that and not re-issued since may be missing. Get a full briefing before flight.
Current runway assignment is not available from D-ATIS at KDEC. The wind components below show which end the wind favors; the section after it is an ATIS Alerts prediction. Neither is an ATC assignment.
Current wind on Runway 18/36
Wind calm
No steady wind direction — no components to compute.
No steady wind direction — no components to compute.
- arrivals
- departures
- LAHSO hold-short
- closed
Layout from FAA NASR runway-end coordinates; the selected runway is highlighted and no active source exists here. Not for navigation. Official FAA diagram ↗
Components use TRUE runway headings and TRUE METAR wind. “Favored by wind” is arithmetic, not an ATC assignment.
Runway 18/36 outlook
Where runway 18/36 stands now and which runway at KDEC is likely over the next 12 hours — an estimate, not an ATC assignment.
Time · runway 18/36 · airport-wide outlook · confidence · forecast wind · why
- Now0947Z · 4:47 AM CDT·18/36: no runway favored·no runway favored airport-wide·no confidence·wind calm·Why METAR wind 000° at 0 kt: below 5 kt, wind does not decide the runway.|No recorded calm-wind preference yet, so no end is favored.
- +1 h1047Z · 5:47 AM CDT·18/36: no runway favored·no runway favored airport-wide·no confidence·wind 180° at 4 kt·Why TAF wind 180° at 4 kt: below 5 kt, wind does not decide the runway.|No recorded calm-wind preference yet, so no end is favored.
- +2 h1147Z · 6:47 AM CDT·18/36: no runway favored·no runway favored airport-wide·no confidence·wind 180° at 4 kt·Why TAF wind 180° at 4 kt: below 5 kt, wind does not decide the runway.|No recorded calm-wind preference yet, so no end is favored.
- +3 h1247Z · 7:47 AM CDT·18/36: no runway favored·no runway favored airport-wide·no confidence·wind 180° at 4 kt·Why TAF wind 180° at 4 kt: below 5 kt, wind does not decide the runway.|No recorded calm-wind preference yet, so no end is favored.
- +6 h1547Z · 10:47 AM CDT·18/36: no runway favored·no runway favored airport-wide·no confidence·wind 180° at 4 kt·Why TAF wind 180° at 4 kt: below 5 kt, wind does not decide the runway.|No recorded calm-wind preference yet, so no end is favored.
- +12 h2147Z · 4:47 PM CDT·18/36: 18 likely·airport-wide likely 18 then 24·South flow·10 kt headwind, 2 kt crosswind·Low 39%·wind 190° at 10 kt·Why TAF forecast wind 190° at 10 kt favors south-facing runway ends: 10 kt headwind and 2 kt crosswind on 18 versus 7 kt headwind on 24.|No known runway closure prevents this configuration.|Confidence falls with forecast distance (+12 h).
ATIS Alerts Predicted Runway is an estimate from the TAF wind forecast, runway geometry (most headwind, crosswind penalised, tailwind over 5 kt avoided, longest runway breaks ties), the current stated configuration and any stated closures. Each row lists its reasons; “no runway favored” is a genuine answer under variable or light wind, never replaced by a guess. It is not an ATC assignment and does not know about noise abatement or traffic flow unless the recorded history shows them. TAF issued 0520Z (12:20 AM CDT).
Runway 18/36 equipment and lighting
What the FAA record lists for each end, annotated with current NOTAM and D-ATIS outages.
- Approach lighting
- Not available
- Visual glide slope
- PAPI (4-box, left side)
- Runway edge lighting
- MIRL (medium intensity)
- Centerline lighting
- Not available
- Touchdown zone lighting
- Not available
- REIL
- Not available
- ILS
- Not available
- Localizer
- Not available
- Glideslope
- Not available
- DME
- Not available
- Marker beacons
- Not available
- RVR
- Not available
- Runway markings
- Non-precision instrument
- Arresting system
- Not available
- Approach lighting
- Not available
- Visual glide slope
- VASI (4-box, left side)
- Runway edge lighting
- MIRL (medium intensity)
- Centerline lighting
- Not available
- Touchdown zone lighting
- Not available
- REIL
- Not available
- ILS
- Not available
- Localizer
- Not available
- Glideslope
- Not available
- DME
- Not available
- Marker beacons
- Not available
- RVR
- Not available
- Runway markings
- Non-precision instrument
- Arresting system
- Not available
Source: FAA NASR 28-day subscription, cycle effective 2026-10-01 (equipment on record) · FAA NOTAMs via SWIM (live)and the current D-ATIS (outages). “Not available” means the FAA record lists no such equipment for the end; nothing here is inferred. An outage annotation is only ever a reading of the official text shown with it. Declared distances are not shown in this phase.
Land and hold short operations
LAHSO hold-short points and available landing distances on the FAA record, and whether the current D-ATIS reports LAHSO in effect.
- Hold short
- Runway 06/24 intersection
- Available landing distance
- 4,450 ft
- Hold short
- Runway 12/30 intersection
- Available landing distance
- 4,800 ft
A hold-short point on record means LAHSO can be conducted to this end; it is active only when ATC says so. This airport has no D-ATIS, so the current LAHSO state is not known here. Source: FAA NASR cycle 2026-10-01; D-ATIS text read by ATIS Alerts.
Frequencies for runway 18/36
Tower, ground, clearance, ATIS and approach frequencies from the FAA record, labelled by what they apply to.
| Service | Frequency | Applies to |
|---|---|---|
| Tower | 118.9 | Airport-wide |
| Tower | 291.775 | Airport-wide |
| Ground | 121.75 | Airport-wide |
| Ground | 291.775 | Airport-wide |
| ATIS | 126.35 | Airport-wide |
Show all frequencies (4 more: approach and departure sectors, secondary and other)
| Service | Frequency | Applies to |
|---|---|---|
| CTAF | 118.9 | Airport-wideACTVT MALSR RWY 06; MIRL RWY 12/30 & 18/36; TWY LGTS RWY 06 - CTAF. WHEN ATCT CLSD HIRL RWY 06/24 PRESET LOW INTST; INCR INTST - CTAF.; SNOW REMOVAL OPS WINTER MONTHS MNT CTAF. LNDG/DEP ACFT USE CTAF WHEN ATCT CLSD. |
| UNICOM | 122.95 | Airport-wide |
| Approach / departure | 132.85 | Airport-wide |
| Approach / departure | 290.225 | Airport-wide |
The FAA record does not sectorize KDEC's frequencies by runway; every row applies airport-wide. Source: FAA NASR FRQ, cycle 2026-10-01. Verify on the current chart supplement before use.
Runway 18/36 overview
Physical characteristics from the FAA-derived runway record.
- Length
- 5,298 ft
- Width
- 150 ft
- Surface
- Asphalt · Good condition
- Surface treatment
- Grooved
- Weight bearing (lb)
- S 120k · D 250k · 2D 550k · 2D/2D2 1035k
- PCN
- 1200
- Runway lights
- Lighted
- Airport elevation
- 682 ft
- Published FAA baseline
- Open
- Published NASR record; does not reflect temporary closures or restrictions. Current operational status is the card at the top of the page.
- True heading
- 179°
- Magnetic
- 180°
- Published FAA baseline
- Open
- Threshold elevation
- 679 ft
- TDZ elevation
- 680 ft
- Displaced threshold
- None on record
- Threshold crossing height
- 53 ft
- Visual glide path
- 3°
- Traffic pattern
- Left
- Controlling obstruction
- trees, 55 ft, 1,755 ft from threshold, 28:1 slope
- True heading
- 359°
- Magnetic
- 000°
- Published FAA baseline
- Open
- Threshold elevation
- 672 ft
- TDZ elevation
- 678 ft
- Displaced threshold
- None on record
- Threshold crossing height
- 58 ft
- Visual glide path
- 3°
- Traffic pattern
- Left
- Controlling obstruction
- pole, 50 ft, 2,344 ft from threshold, 42:1 slope
Runway 18/36 numbers are magnetic; the stored geometry and every wind calculation on this page are TRUE north, so they never need a variation correction. Magnetic headings use the FAA's published variation for this airport, 1.0°W (2000), the same value printed on the FAA airport diagram. Surface condition, treatment, weight bearing, thresholds and traffic pattern are from the FAA NASR record (cycle 2026-10-01); lighting, ILS and LAHSO are in their own sections above. Declared distances are not shown in this phase.
Wind-favored runway at KDEC — last 30 days
Which runway end had the most headwind each hour, from ATIS Alerts' collected wind history — an estimate, not ATC use.
Share of hours each runway had the most headwind. From wind reports, not ATC assignments.
- 18
- 26%
- 24
- 21%
- 36
- 15%
- 06
- 15%
- 12
- 12%
- 30
- 11%
Historical wind and crosswind on runway 18/36
20-year hourly climatology from the ASOS archive, computed per runway end.
From 174,383 hourly observations at KDEC (2005–2025), 156,729 with a steady wind direction (10.1% calm, variable or direction-less). One observation per clock hour; TRUE headings against TRUE wind.
Crosswind on runway 18/36 (either end)
| Crosswind (kt) | Share of wind hours |
|---|---|
| 0–5 | 54.9% |
| 5–10 | 33.1% |
| 10–15 | 9.7% |
| 15–20 | 1.9% |
| 20–25 | 0.3% |
| 25+ | 0% |
Strongest-crosswind month on average: Jan; calmest: Aug. Percentiles are streaming approximations (t-digest), accurate to about 0.1 kt.
Runway 18
Runway 36
“Most wind-favored end” is meteorological analysis: the share of steady-wind hours (2005–2025) in which this end had the most headwind of every open runway end at KDEC. It does not mean ATC selected the runway that often (parallel ends with the same heading share the credit equally). Observed runway use, where available, is the configuration-history section above.
By wind direction
| Wind from | Share of wind hours | 18 favored | 36 favored | Mean crosswind | Crosswind > 15 kt |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| N 338–023° | 10% | 0% | 100% | 1.8 kt | 0% |
| NE 023–068° | 9% | 0% | 0% | 5.5 kt | 1.3% |
| E 068–113° | 10% | 0% | 0% | 7.3 kt | 4.3% |
| SE 113–158° | 8% | 29.1% | 0% | 5.4 kt | 0.7% |
| S 158–203° | 21% | 100% | 0% | 2 kt | 0% |
| SW 203–248° | 15% | 0% | 0% | 6 kt | 1% |
| W 248–293° | 14% | 0% | 0% | 9 kt | 8.7% |
| NW 293–338° | 13% | 0% | 16.8% | 7.1 kt | 2.2% |
By time of day (airport-local)
Seasonal runway conditions
| Month | Mean crosswind (kt) |
|---|---|
| Jan | 6.4 kt |
| Feb | 6.3 kt |
| Mar | 6.2 kt |
| Apr | 6.2 kt |
| May | 5.1 kt |
| Jun | 4.7 kt |
| Jul | 4.2 kt |
| Aug | 3.8 kt |
| Sep | 4.1 kt |
| Oct | 5.0 kt |
| Nov | 5.4 kt |
| Dec | 5.8 kt |
| Month | Prevailing | Mean wind | Gusty | Mean xw | xw > 10 | xw > 15 | xw > 20 | 18 tail > 5 | 36 tail > 5 | IFR | TS | Fog |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan | W | 9.8 kt | 22.2% | 6.4 kt | 19% | 3.6% | 0.4% | 25.1% | 30.5% | 18.1% | 0.09% | 17.3% |
| Feb | NW | 9.9 kt | 20.5% | 6.3 kt | 17.4% | 3.6% | 0.6% | 31.4% | 27.8% | 13.5% | 0.21% | 14.6% |
| Mar | S | 10.1 kt | 22.9% | 6.2 kt | 18.1% | 4.4% | 0.8% | 29.8% | 31.6% | 8.8% | 0.55% | 10.2% |
| Apr | S | 9.9 kt | 27.7% | 6.2 kt | 19% | 4.6% | 0.4% | 24.4% | 34.1% | 5.6% | 1.17% | 6.8% |
| May | S | 8.2 kt | 17.6% | 5.1 kt | 11% | 1.6% | 0.2% | 20.3% | 33.9% | 4.9% | 1.37% | 5.7% |
| Jun | S | 7.2 kt | 13.2% | 4.7 kt | 6.7% | 0.7% | 0.1% | 16% | 34.1% | 3.1% | 1.91% | 3.8% |
| Jul | SW | 5.9 kt | 5.8% | 4.2 kt | 3.3% | 0.2% | 0% | 15% | 25.8% | 3.2% | 1.6% | 4.6% |
| Aug | S | 5.7 kt | 5.4% | 3.8 kt | 3% | 0.1% | 0% | 17.1% | 25.6% | 3.4% | 1.33% | 5.6% |
| Sep | S | 6.1 kt | 9.3% | 4.1 kt | 4.5% | 0.3% | 0% | 20.9% | 24.2% | 4.7% | 0.55% | 5.9% |
| Oct | S | 8.1 kt | 17.2% | 5 kt | 10.3% | 1.3% | 0.1% | 22.7% | 32.5% | 6.9% | 0.4% | 6.2% |
| Nov | S | 9 kt | 20.1% | 5.4 kt | 11.9% | 2.2% | 0.3% | 20.7% | 38.7% | 8.6% | 0.17% | 11.2% |
| Dec | S | 9.2 kt | 18.9% | 5.8 kt | 15.5% | 3.3% | 0.7% | 19.5% | 34.4% | 16.3% | 0.11% | 18.9% |
IFR, thunderstorm (TS) and fog columns are airport-wide shares of hours; the crosswind and tailwind columns are specific to this runway. Prevailing = most common 45° wind sector among wind hours.
Runway 18/36 closure history
Kept per source with its provenance: D-ATIS-observed, NOTAM-observed and the FAA published baseline are never merged.
KDEC has no D-ATIS, so there is no broadcast-observed closure record.
No closure NOTAM naming runway 18/36 has been received since the stream went live.
Runway 18/36: Open on the published record — a baseline that does not reflect temporary closures or restrictions, not the current operational status.
Recent pilot reports involving runway 18/36
Official PIREPs that name this runway explicitly, past 6 hours.
No pilot report in the last 6 hours names runway 18/36 at KDEC explicitly. Reports near the airport that do not name a runway are on the airport page.
Instrument approaches to runway 18/36
From the FAA d-TPP, linked to the official plates.
Runway 18
- RNAV (GPS)RNAV (GPS) RWY 18 ↗
- VORVOR RWY 18 ↗
Runway 36
- RNAV (GPS)RNAV (GPS) RWY 36 ↗
- VORVOR RWY 36 ↗
No departure procedures · LAHSO page ↗ · FAA d-TPP cycle 2611. Plates open on aeronav.faa.gov (public domain); ATIS Alerts does not reproduce charts or minimums.
Methodology and sources
Short version below; the full write-up is at Runway Intelligence methodology, and every launched airport is listed on the Runway Intelligence hub.
- Active runwayscome first from the tower's TFDM (Terminal Flight Data Manager) airport configuration, received as structured data through the FAA SWIM Cloud Distribution Service at towers that have it; otherwise from the airport's D-ATIS text (community relay of the FAA broadcast) with an open, tested parser, and the broadcast text is always shown. Every change is recorded, so “recorded use” is what the facility stated, never an inference. ATIS Alerts is not an FAA product and this is not FAA data; SWIM content is for non-operational use.
- Flowis the compass direction of the stated arrival ends (eight sectors, named only when every arrival end points within 30° of the others and clear of a sector edge); a tower's own configuration name is used when it carries a direction word. Stored separately from the runway sets.
- Equipment, LAHSO and frequencies come from the FAA NASR 28-day subscription (cycle 2026-10-01): approach lights, visual glide slope, edge / centerline / touchdown-zone lights, REIL, ILS components with FAA status, RVR, markings, LAHSO hold-short points and available landing distances, and facility frequencies with their published sectorization. Outage annotations are readings of the NOTAM or D-ATIS text shown beside them. Blank FAA fields read “Not available”.
- Wind components use the current METAR (aviationweather.gov) against TRUE runway headings from the OurAirports/FAA runway record.
- Runway visual range, tower demand and traffic-management restrictions come from FAA SWIM: STDDS Airport Data (RVR and light settings, about 130 airports) and TFDM (15-minute runway demand, APREQ/MIT restrictions). Each block is stamped with its own time; none of it is an FAA product or a clearance.
- Predicted runway scores each open end from the TAF wind (headwind, crosswind penalty, tailwind avoidance, longest-runway tie-break), excludes stated closures, and — once a wind sector has 24 h of recorded use — adjusts confidence by what the facility did under similar wind; every row lists its reasons. It does not model noise abatement or flow programs beyond what the record shows.
- History thresholds: usage shares need 12 / 48 / 168 recorded hours for the 24-hour / 7-day / 30-day windows; a wind sector needs 24 h and 5 days; time-of-day needs 7 days and 20 h per daypart; flow shares need 48 h. Below a bar the module says so instead of showing a percentage.
- Climatology: Iowa Environmental Mesonet ASOS archive, one observation per hour, 45° wind sectors, percentiles via t-digest; runway geometry is today's record applied to all years. Methodology v1.
- PIREPs: official reports from aviationweather.gov are attached only when the text names this runway and the report is tied to KDEC by identifier or by position within 15 NM. Approaches: FAA d-TPP metafile, current charting cycle; plates link to aeronav.faa.gov. No minimums are reproduced.
- Data freshness: METAR and D-ATIS refresh every minute on this page; the D-ATIS recorder ran 2 min ago; usage rollups every 3 h; climatology through 2025-12-31.
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Official FAA airport diagram · d-TPP cycle 2611 · Not for navigation. Download the official FAA PDF ↗
⚠️ ATIS Alerts provides informational runway analysis based on available weather, the tower's TFDM configuration and NOTAMs received through FAA SWIM, D-ATIS text, FAA data and historical observations. Active runways shown here are what the tower or its D-ATIS stated and may lag or be misread; NOTAM coverage is not complete; predicted runways are an ATIS Alerts estimate, not an ATC assignment; equipment states are readings of the official text shown with them. Not an FAA product. Not for operational use. Always verify with official FAA-approved preflight weather sources before flight.