frontendrob Posted August 23, 2016 Report Posted August 23, 2016 This is what's written in the MAXX_METAR.wrx: The server encountered an internal error or misconfiguration and was unable to complete your request. Reference #3.7e5742d1.1471965764.147d8210 So RWC is not working ATM (at least the "always" setting).
sundog Posted August 23, 2016 Report Posted August 23, 2016 That means NOAA's servers are down. Nothing we can do about that! Delete the file, and try again in a bit. 1
frontendrob Posted August 23, 2016 Author Report Posted August 23, 2016 38 minutes ago, sundog said: That means NOAA's servers are down. Nothing we can do about that! Delete the file, and try again in a bit. That's what I thought.
frontendrob Posted August 23, 2016 Author Report Posted August 23, 2016 <HTML><HEAD> <TITLE>Service Removed</TITLE> </HEAD><BODY> <H1>This Service is no longer available</H1> </BODY></HTML> Uh oh, sounds like trouble.
Cameron Posted August 23, 2016 Report Posted August 23, 2016 Too early to draw conclusions but we'll keep an eye on it.
Denco Posted August 23, 2016 Report Posted August 23, 2016 Apparently the NOAA site is getting shutdown permanently. http://www.nws.noaa.gov/dm-cgi-bin/chgshow.pl?fn=DM051602.txt
frontendrob Posted August 23, 2016 Author Report Posted August 23, 2016 Yes, but there seem to be alternatives. http://www.avsim.com/topic/493544-end-of-old-noaa-weather-web-service/
frontendrob Posted August 23, 2016 Author Report Posted August 23, 2016 1 hour ago, Cameron said: Too early to draw conclusions but we'll keep an eye on it. Thanks.
jcomm Posted August 24, 2016 Report Posted August 24, 2016 http://www.nws.noaa.gov/os/notification/tin14-55ncep_ftp.txt and of course: http://www.nws.noaa.gov/dm-cgi-bin/chgshow.pl?fn=DM051602.txt
frontendrob Posted August 24, 2016 Author Report Posted August 24, 2016 (edited) In the NOAA plug-in, the VATSIM metar source still works fine. Edited August 24, 2016 by frontendrob
sundog Posted August 24, 2016 Report Posted August 24, 2016 (edited) Egad, I thought this was just a temporary server problem - but NOAA/NWS really did shut down their METAR service for good. I've noticed X-Plane's built-in real weather system isn't successfully downloading updates either (at least for me,) so this isn't just affecting RWC. I'm sure there are plenty of real-world systems that depend on this data as well, which is a little bit terrifying. We're working on it... for now, you're best off keeping RWC in "automatic" mode so it can at least use the last data X-Plane itself successfully downloaded. Edited August 24, 2016 by sundog
woodus Posted August 24, 2016 Report Posted August 24, 2016 (edited) on the forums i saw this as a solution... no idea about how reliable this is. This is for NOAA Plugin, but maybe it is appliable for your product as well. http://forums.x-plane.org/index.php?/forums/topic/72313-noaa-weather-plugin/&page=78#comment-1052537 Edited August 24, 2016 by woodus
frontendrob Posted August 24, 2016 Author Report Posted August 24, 2016 Just now, woodus said: on the forums i saw this as a solution... no idea about how reliable this is. This is for NOAA Plugin, but maybe it is appliable for your product as well. http://forums.x-plane.org/index.php?/forums/topic/72313-noaa-weather-plugin/&page=78#comment-1052537 I tried this, but I can't find the place where the URL is stored in SMP / RWC. Even decompiled the plug-in with no success yet
jcomm Posted August 24, 2016 Report Posted August 24, 2016 The download is apparently still possible from the altrenate URL: http://tgftp.nws.noaa.gov/data/observations/metar/cycles/ 1
sundog Posted August 24, 2016 Report Posted August 24, 2016 Yes, we're working on a patch. There's really no way to patch it yourself - just wait for us to release it please. Meanwhile keep RWC on "automatic" mode for now.
frontendrob Posted August 24, 2016 Author Report Posted August 24, 2016 Just now, sundog said: Yes, we're working on a patch. There's really no way to patch it yourself - just wait for us to release it please. Meanwhile keep RWC on "automatic" mode for now. Thanks Frank, thats good to hear. Don't worry there's worse things than users being anxious to getting back to using your products "Automatic" doesn't do for users with custom setups...
jcomm Posted August 26, 2016 Report Posted August 26, 2016 Further to this, I would like to add: 1) Austin confirmed adding the new servers to the next 10.50 update; 2) Starting January 2017, all METAR ( WMO - GTS ) dissemination will be text and xml based; 3) Starting January 2019, only xml based dissemination will be available ( WMO - GTS ). So, weather injector developers should start playing with the future syntax and query system, described at one of the links I posted above :-)
sundog Posted August 26, 2016 Report Posted August 26, 2016 jcomm, where did you get that info? I want to be sure we're on top of the details. 1
jcomm Posted August 26, 2016 Report Posted August 26, 2016 Well, I work at the Portuguese MetOffice ( @ LPPT ) who is the Portuguese member of WMO / ICAO for Aviation Weather. The info is based on the official WMO GTS circuits ( and other ) we use here for our mission. I do not know if NOAA will make available the xml version in the future, but their "Best Practices" document in the following link gives some hints: https://www.aviationweather.gov/dataserver/bestpractices
sundog Posted August 26, 2016 Report Posted August 26, 2016 Is that January 2017 deadline documented or announced anywhere that you know of? It sounds a little ambiguous to whether the current text format we expect is going away or not. 1
jcomm Posted August 26, 2016 Report Posted August 26, 2016 (edited) Until 2019 both formats will co-exist. From there on, xml only. Anyway, this info pertains to the GTS ( WMO ) and I guess NOAA just makes it available to the public by "courtesy". I don't know what NOAA's plans are for this particular service. I'll try to find more and post here next week. Edited August 26, 2016 by jcomm 1
sundog Posted August 26, 2016 Report Posted August 26, 2016 OK, that doesn't sound so scary then. Actually I'd welcome the XML format, as it explicitly breaks out the cloud cover information we want instead of making us parse out the entire METAR string - as long as we have enough prior notice! 1
jcomm Posted August 26, 2016 Report Posted August 26, 2016 Just a side note. As Austin had told me yesterday, the just released 10.50r3 has also restored METAR D/L. Not sure about the wind & turbulence GRIBs... 1
Andyphone Posted August 28, 2016 Report Posted August 28, 2016 I see an update is available, so I suppose the problem is fixed? Also will really NOAA stop providing metar data? Thanks Ciao
sundog Posted August 28, 2016 Report Posted August 28, 2016 1 hour ago, Andyphone said: I see an update is available, so I suppose the problem is fixed? Also will really NOAA stop providing metar data? Thanks Ciao Yes, that's exactly what this update is for. It gets METAR information in "always" mode from a different server, since NOAA shut down the one we (and X-Plane) had been using before. NOAA/NWS isn't going to stop providing METAR data, but they reserve the right to change the way in which they provide it, which is what happened. 1
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