Beirut's last report: No significant changes
Sometimes a message from one of your database maintenance tasks makes you shudder, probably because it is an awful error message. Sometimes such a message can make you shudder even more, even if there is no error in your systems.
In a meteorological company, we use our MySQL database to keep track of a wealth of weather data from all around the world. The message from the maintenance task was short and simple: OLBA removed from list of active stations.
OLBA is the ICAO code for Beirut's Rafic Hariri International Airport. Their weather station continued to report even after the first bombing attacks, which forced the airport closed. The attacks continued, and the last report came in at 3 o'clock UTC this morning: a temperature of 25 °C, an air pressure of 1009 hPa, some scattered clouds and - no significant changes. The station has been silent since.
