503 (Service Unavailable) - How Often Does This Happen To The NWS API?

[jkreski]

I've seen this in both of the last two days. Wondering how reliable the API actually is...

[jah1007]

URL or it isn’t happening 🙃

[jkreski]

https://api.weather.gov/gridpoints/APX/14,39/forecast

[jah1007]

That site has had communications issues the last two days which explains why their forecasts have been spotty. If the forecast is older than 15 hours it throws a 503 because it is expired.

[jkreski]

Thanks! Would that affect current temperature on the web vs API? They have been wonky...

[scadergit]

The forecast data is provided the by field office, but current observations are provided by MADIS. There has been issues with MADIS data lately, which is being investigated separately.

[brewin]

I’ve found that retrying 5 times with a delay of 1 second between retries sometimes works. It’s not ideal and I’m not sure what to do when that doesn’t work. Maybe attempt to get the forecast for another nearby grid point.

[scadergit]

This type of behavior is a separate issue with the forecast data where the upstream service from the API that transcodes the weather sent by the office can intermittently fail. It's currently being addressed.

[brewin]

Thanks. I'm looking forward to these issues being resolved.