html_url,issue_url,id,node_id,user,created_at,updated_at,author_association,body,reactions,performed_via_github_app,issue
https://github.com/pydata/xarray/issues/1452#issuecomment-327023000,https://api.github.com/repos/pydata/xarray/issues/1452,327023000,MDEyOklzc3VlQ29tbWVudDMyNzAyMzAwMA==,950575,2017-09-04T20:13:38Z,2017-09-04T20:13:38Z,CONTRIBUTOR,"Totally missed your answer here @shoyer. Thanks!

The workaround is fine and the `_FillValue =-1` seems wrong to me. Pinging @rsignell-usgs who is know more about the conventions and was interested into this in the first place.

Closing this as I don't think anything is broken with `xarray`.","{""total_count"": 0, ""+1"": 0, ""-1"": 0, ""laugh"": 0, ""hooray"": 0, ""confused"": 0, ""heart"": 0, ""rocket"": 0, ""eyes"": 0}",,235687353
https://github.com/pydata/xarray/issues/1452#issuecomment-309171587,https://api.github.com/repos/pydata/xarray/issues/1452,309171587,MDEyOklzc3VlQ29tbWVudDMwOTE3MTU4Nw==,1217238,2017-06-17T00:19:32Z,2017-06-17T00:19:32Z,MEMBER,"It looks like this variable has an attribute `_FillValue = -1`, which isn't a valid string value: 
```
In [18]: ds['tidenames'].encoding
Out[18]:
{'_FillValue': -1,
 'dtype': dtype('S1'),
 'original_shape': (38, 64),
 'source': 'http://geoport.whoi.edu/thredds/dodsC/usgs/vault0/models/tides/vdatum_gulf_of_maine/adcirc54_38_orig.nc'}
```

Potentially we could update xarray's CF conventions code to handle inconsistent dtypes and `_FillValue` attributes, or possibly this file should be fixed instead.

A work around is to set `mask_and_scale=False`:
```
In [19]: ds = xr.open_dataset(url, mask_and_scale=False)

In [21]: ds['tidenames']
Out[21]:
<xarray.DataArray 'tidenames' (ntides: 38)>
array([b'STEADY ', b'MN     ', b'SM     ', b'K1     ', b'O1     ', b'P1     ',
       b'Q1     ', b'SO1    ', b'MNS2   ', b'2MS2   ', b'N2     ', b'M2     ',
       b'2MN2   ', b'S2     ', b'K2     ', b'MSN2   ', b'2SM2   ', b'MO3    ',
       b'SO3/MK3', b'SK3    ', b'N4     ', b'3MS4   ', b'MN4    ', b'M4     ',
       b'3MN4   ', b'MS4    ', b'2MSN4  ', b'2NM6   ', b'2MN6   ', b'M6     ',
       b'MSN6   ', b'2MS6   ', b'2SM6   ', b'2(MN)8 ', b'3MN8   ', b'M8     ',
       b'2MSN8  ', b'3MS8   '],
      dtype='|S64')
Dimensions without coordinates: ntides
Attributes:
    long_name:      Tide Constituent
    missing_value:  -1
    standard_name:  tide_constituent
```","{""total_count"": 0, ""+1"": 0, ""-1"": 0, ""laugh"": 0, ""hooray"": 0, ""confused"": 0, ""heart"": 0, ""rocket"": 0, ""eyes"": 0}",,235687353