As mentioned in the October EZNews, the NOAA site https://rucsoundings.noaa.gov was removed from public access earlier this week. This is the site that the EZWxBrief progressive web app uses to render the Skew-T diagrams found in the Airport Wx view.
Reaching out to the team that administers this site, they responded that...
"NOAA management has decreed that all of our web pages must be section 508 compliant (https://www.section508.gov) or they would have to be shut down to the public. We're currently working on reaching compliance. We hope we can have the page available again soon, but we don't have an ETA right now."
Consequently, the Skew-T option in the Airport Wx sitemap menu has been temporarily removed.
In addition to these sites not meeting NOAA requirements for public facing websites, the main issue is that the organization that administers this site is a research laboratory. The products that they provide should not be used operationally, nor should they be used for operational decision making. This is likely the main reason that this site have been removed from public access. It is possible that this site will be restored with the caveat that they are not to be used for operational purposes, but it is also possible that this site will remain hidden from public access if compliance cannot be reached.
We apologize for any inconvenience and will restore this important feature when it again becomes available to the public. Moreover, we are also working on a potential replacement product that will provide access to these diagrams accordingly. This replacement product will not be available until next year at the earliest.
Most pilots are weatherwise, but some are otherwise™
Dr. Scott Dennstaedt
Weather Systems Engineer
Founder, EZWxBrief™
CFI & former NWS meteorologist
