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General Weather/Earth Sciences Topics => Aviation Weather => Topic started by: wvdkuil on May 07, 2018, 02:15:15 PM

Title: Metar server down ?
Post by: wvdkuil on May 07, 2018, 02:15:15 PM
More then half the requests for a METAR from http://tgftp.nws.noaa.gov result in errors since yesterday.

Example:
USA:   http://tgftp.nws.noaa.gov/data/observations/metar/stations/KMMU.TXT
Europe: http://tgftp.nws.noaa.gov/data/observations/metar/stations/EBBR.TXT

Errors such as Connection reset by peer or a timeout, even after 10 seconds.

Any ideas?
Is there another source for raw METAR data?

The METAR is used to get current-weather-conditions (CCN) for weather-sites using a weather-program which does not supply CCN

Wim

P.S. Leuven-Template users can switch to Yahoo to get CCN by changing the appropriate setting.
Title: Re: Metar server down ?
Post by: ValentineWeather on May 07, 2018, 02:58:03 PM
Same here, I've been seeing it often hangs site for about 10 seconds when it occurs.
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Title: Re: Metar server down ?
Post by: ValentineWeather on May 07, 2018, 03:43:37 PM
Went ahead and comment out // conditions metar for now.  It's been bad all day. Really last month or more. :sad:

I'm surprised others haven't noticed , if they have not much is being mentioned or maybe it's just my region again.  I went as far as ordering a solar sensor trying to get away from METAR altogether.
Title: Re: Metar server down ?
Post by: saratogaWX on May 07, 2018, 07:55:01 PM
Looks like the tgftp.nws.noaa.gov server is back running.. maybe they are moving stuff around to new servers ?!?.. didn't see any pre-outage notices on the NWS mailing list.
Title: Re: Metar server down ?
Post by: ValentineWeather on June 28, 2018, 01:21:37 PM
Looks like metar server is down again.
Title: Re: Metar server down ?
Post by: wvdkuil on June 28, 2018, 01:22:48 PM
Looks like metar server is down again.
Yes, it is down.
No response from the server at all.

Wim
Title: Re: Metar server down ?
Post by: wvdkuil on June 28, 2018, 01:45:49 PM
And up again,

Wim
Title: Re: Metar server down ?
Post by: ValentineWeather on June 28, 2018, 01:46:24 PM
Thanks I just hashed out conditions icon to prevent site hang.

Wish there was a work around for rain override to work with metar hashed out also. I have cameras and only have enabled so  local station rain conditions will show on dashboard.
I tried it with metar hashed out but didn't work. If this would work I wouldn't use airport metar at all. 
Title: Re: Metar server down ?
Post by: ValentineWeather on June 28, 2018, 01:47:46 PM
Its in a up and down phase again, I noticed it down early this morning and came back up.
Title: Re: Metar server down ?
Post by: so_whats_happening on July 24, 2018, 09:33:47 PM
Not sure if you guys use this or not aviationweather.gov is pretty decent it crashes a few times here and there but overall pretty decent can get most metar stations auto or manned stations. I think you can also get most countries.
Title: Re: Metar server down ?
Post by: wvdkuil on July 25, 2018, 03:32:46 AM
Not sure if you guys use this or not aviationweather.gov is pretty decent it crashes a few times here and there but overall pretty decent can get most metar stations auto or manned stations. I think you can also get most countries.
Thanks  :grin: for your post, I totally forgot this aviationweather.gov site, I used it in the past.

Disadvanteges?:
I wonder if aviationweather gets its data from another source, if they load their data also from   tgftp.nws.noaa.gov  they are down at the same time .

To construct the "Current Conditions" for a weather-station, the scripts use a CURL or a  filegetcontents to load the METAR .  Although good scripts cache the result and reuse it for at least 15 minutes, the METAR is relatively frequently loaded.
Using aviationweather.gov adds considerable server bandwidth  as for more data is received then the METAR-data itself.
This link: https://aviationweather.gov/metar/data?ids=EBBR&format=raw&date=0&hours=0
HTML size = 19kB for  this data set "EBBR 250650Z 03005KT 360V060 CAVOK 23/16 Q1016 NOSIG" .
Also we should "scrape" the html to get at the METAR  => extra server time + changes in the scripts when the aviationweather site changes.

Advantages:
This aviationweather site also supplies the data in xml. In a previous release I used their DATA in my scripts that way as I do not like scraping  HTML. Probably it is allowed to load the data as it is a USA .gov website. This is the xml one should use
https://aviationweather.gov/adds/dataserver_current/httpparam?dataSource=metars&requestType=retrieve&format=xml&hoursBeforeNow=3&mostRecent=true&stationString=EBBR

To do:Wim
Title: Re: Metar server down ?
Post by: wvdkuil on February 04, 2019, 11:15:42 AM
https://tgftp.nws.noaa.gov/ is down on Feb, 4  since 16:00 UTC

The alternative is up: https://aviationweather.gov/  but it will take some time to check if they have recent data, the ones I checked were all from before 16:00 UTC.

Another alternative, which needs a free API-key,  is still up: https://api.checkwx.com/
Again, I have to check if they have METAR's with a timestamp after 16:00 UTC
Wim


Title: Re: Metar server down ?
Post by: miraculon on February 04, 2019, 11:24:58 AM
https://tgftp.nws.noaa.gov/ is down on Feb, 4  since 16:00 UTC

The alternative is up: https://aviationweather.gov/  but it will take some time to check if they have recent data, the ones i checked were all from before 16:00 UTC.

Wim

I am getting "unable to load KPZQ data RC=302 Object Moved" where the icon normally is on my page. The METAR reports are all showing "Not Current" and the same error message as the icon.

Greg H.
Title: Re: Metar server down ?
Post by: wvdkuil on February 04, 2019, 11:36:06 AM
The connection error reported is  SSL_ERROR_UNRECOGNIZED_NAME_ALERT

At 16:35 the site was up again.

I could verify that https://aviationweather.gov/  returned data with a timestamp after 16:00 UTC .
They are not getting their data from  https://tgftp.nws.noaa.gov/

Wim
Title: Re: Metar server down ?
Post by: miraculon on February 04, 2019, 11:38:08 AM
This text page just came back:

http://tgftp.nws.noaa.gov/data/observations/metar/decoded/KPZQ.TXT

It was missing earlier.

Greg H.
Title: Re: Metar server down ?
Post by: miraculon on February 04, 2019, 05:33:42 PM
The text METAR data is the only thing that started to work again. The other METAR functions are still returning the "302" error.

Greg H.
Title: Re: Metar server down ?
Post by: ConligWX on February 04, 2019, 06:11:28 PM
Metar data is now working here in UK ok https://www.conligwx.org/wxmetar.php
Title: Re: Metar server down ?
Post by: ValentineWeather on February 04, 2019, 06:35:43 PM
I was getting the same thing unable to load. Downloaded the latest 'get-metar-conditions-inc.php' and cleared right up.

You need the 2018 version they updated. 2017 didn't work.
Title: Re: Metar server down ?
Post by: miraculon on February 04, 2019, 07:30:35 PM
I was getting the same thing unable to load. Downloaded the latest 'get-metar-conditions-inc.php' and cleared right up.

You need the 2018 version they updated. 2017 didn't work.

Fixed with the update from Saratoga-Weather.org. The get-metar-conditions-inc.php file seems to have resolved it. Thanks for the "heads up" Randy.

Quote
get-metar-conditions-inc.php
    Updated: 2018-11-30 06:53
    Version 'get-metar-conditions-inc.php - Version 1.17 - 30-Nov-2018'
    Size: 48792 bytes
    Recommend: Replace current copy with updated copy.

Greg H.
Title: Re: Metar server down ?
Post by: ValentineWeather on February 04, 2019, 10:19:19 PM
Welcome,
Title: Re: Metar server down ?
Post by: satcop on February 05, 2019, 07:38:18 PM
Thanks folks I was having the same problem\, all the metar access programs stopped working last night.  Looked here and found your solution and as advertised the  latest get-metar-conditions-inc.php file fixed it.  Thank you. :grin:
Title: Re: Metar server down ?
Post by: miraculon on February 07, 2019, 05:04:17 PM
The METAR is back to not loading again. What is NWS doing???

Greg H.
Title: Re: Metar server down ?
Post by: ConligWX on February 07, 2019, 05:17:04 PM
yep noticed here too. site must be down.
Title: Re: Metar server down ?
Post by: miraculon on February 07, 2019, 05:49:58 PM
It appeared to automagically fix itself....

Greg H.
Title: Re: Metar server down ?
Post by: satcop on February 07, 2019, 06:15:58 PM
Interesting that it came back up for you folks, can't get to the site from here now.  I wonder if they changed a routing and the table hasn't got through the system yet.  Will see if it comes up here.

Update:  Well it didn't work all night and early this morning, but a little after 7:30 am this morning local time the links started working again.  Someone must have kicked a server somewhere after the morning coffee.
Title: Re: Metar server down ?
Post by: Mearns on February 08, 2019, 07:58:45 AM
Strange - my metar displays are also down on the east coast of Scotland, ie for EGPD with "unable to load EGPD data RC=" but the metar displays at Lochaber Weather on the west coast of Scotland and ConligWX in Ireland are working.
Title: Re: Metar server down ?
Post by: saratogaWX on February 08, 2019, 10:33:52 AM
It looks like a problem with DNS on your webserver.  The get-metar-conditions-inc.php script is at the current version.

Doing a view-source on wxmetar.php?debug=y&force=1 to force a cache reload and diagnostic output shows
Quote
<!-- get-metar-conditions-inc.php - Version 1.17 - 30-Nov-2018 -->
<!-- mtr_conditions using METAR ICAO='EGPD' -->
<!-- curl fetching 'https://tgftp.nws.noaa.gov/data/observations/metar/stations/EGPD.TXT' -->
<!-- curl Error: Could not resolve: tgftp.nws.noaa.gov (Domain name not found) -->
<!-- HTTP stats:  RC=0 dest= port=0 (from sce=)
      Times: dns=0.000 conn=0.000 pxfer=0.000 get=0.000 total=0.000 secs -->
Contact your webhoster tech support regarding DNS lookup for tgftp.nws.noaa.gov on your webserver.
Title: Re: Metar server down ?
Post by: Mearns on February 08, 2019, 05:45:49 PM
Thanks Ken - it seems to have resolved itself before I could contact my webhost....but at least I know what to do if the identical problem reappears.
Title: Re: Metar server down ?
Post by: Atellyer on June 19, 2019, 02:58:29 PM
Hi, I'm having trouble getting the Metar page to update on my site http://weather.earlscliffe.com/wxmetar.php.

Running the debug I am getting the following error. Any clues? Thanks.

<!-- include-metar-display.php - Version 1.06 - 29-Nov-2011 -->
<!-- get-metar-conditions-inc.php - Version 1.17 - 30-Nov-2018 -->
<!-- mtr_conditions using METAR ICAO='EIDW' -->
<!-- curl fetching 'https://tgftp.nws.noaa.gov/data/observations/metar/stations/EIDW.TXT' -->
<!-- curl Error: error:14077410:SSL routines:SSL23_GET_SERVER_HELLO:sslv3 alert handshake failure -->
<!-- HTTP stats:  RC=0
      Times: dns=0.059 conn=0.196 pxfer=0.000 total=0.000 secs -->
<!-- headers returned:

 -->
<!-- mtr_conditions returns RC='' for ICAO/METAR='EIDW' -->
<!-- mtr_conditions returns
condwords='unable to load EIDW data RC=', iconnum=5, condicon='day_partly_cloudy.gif',
condicondesc='unable to load EIDW data RC='
metarUpdated = 1560973967 2019-06-19 07:52 GMT (19/06/2019 20:52)
 -->
Title: Re: Metar server down ?
Post by: saratogaWX on June 19, 2019, 04:57:46 PM
That CURL error may be due to your PHP Version: 5.5.18 -- that version may not have the SSLv3 routines updated.

Current PHP is V7.3 -- try updating your site to a more recent version of PHP.

Also, running check-fetch-times.php?show=versions results in a curl failure to get the current version info, so I suspect there may be a curl issue on your site (that may need to be fixed by your hoster).  Strangely enough, the https access to temis.nl, api.weather.com and meteoalarm.eu seem to work fine when tested.
Title: Re: Metar server down ?
Post by: Atellyer on June 19, 2019, 06:44:36 PM
Thanks for that. I will get on to my host company and see if they can at least update PHP. This hosting site is old. I may need to look elsewhere for a more modern one. Thanks again for the update.
Title: Re: Metar server down ?
Post by: Atellyer on June 25, 2019, 04:39:49 PM
Now sorted. Have moved to a new server. Although not the latest, the PHP version of 5.6.40 is allowing the Metar service to be displayed on my site. Thanks again for your help. [tup]