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/2565#issuecomment-441333644,https://api.github.com/repos/pydata/xarray/issues/2565,441333644,MDEyOklzc3VlQ29tbWVudDQ0MTMzMzY0NA==,1217238,2018-11-24T00:48:28Z,2018-11-24T00:48:28Z,MEMBER,"You can find the decoded time units in `encoding`:
```
In [8]: ds.time.encoding['units']
Out[8]: 'days since 0850-01-01 00:00:00'
```

But I would also be in favor of decoding time units in bounds variables.","{""total_count"": 2, ""+1"": 2, ""-1"": 0, ""laugh"": 0, ""hooray"": 0, ""confused"": 0, ""heart"": 0, ""rocket"": 0, ""eyes"": 0}",,383791450
https://github.com/pydata/xarray/issues/2565#issuecomment-441228064,https://api.github.com/repos/pydata/xarray/issues/2565,441228064,MDEyOklzc3VlQ29tbWVudDQ0MTIyODA2NA==,10050469,2018-11-23T12:23:00Z,2018-11-23T12:24:17Z,MEMBER,"Good points! 

> I do notice the time variable in your file has a bounds attribute, which points to the name time_bnds. Is that something required by CF conventions? We might be able to rely on that.

Yes, `bounds` is a CF name: 
http://cfconventions.org/Data/cf-conventions/cf-conventions-1.7/cf-conventions.html#cell-boundaries 

It seems reasonable to assume that the bounds should share the same units as time, therefore I think that the workaround you are using could actually be implemented in xarray, but the actual implementation might be a bit messy... 

(it would be much simpler if CF would prescribe the units to also be available at the the `time_bnds` level...)","{""total_count"": 0, ""+1"": 0, ""-1"": 0, ""laugh"": 0, ""hooray"": 0, ""confused"": 0, ""heart"": 0, ""rocket"": 0, ""eyes"": 0}",,383791450
https://github.com/pydata/xarray/issues/2565#issuecomment-441226736,https://api.github.com/repos/pydata/xarray/issues/2565,441226736,MDEyOklzc3VlQ29tbWVudDQ0MTIyNjczNg==,6628425,2018-11-23T12:15:36Z,2018-11-23T12:15:36Z,MEMBER,"@fmaussion I have run into this issue before and it is a bit cumbersome.  My workaround in the past has been to open the dataset without decoding the times initially, copy the `units` and `calendar` attributes from the `time` variable to the `time_bnds` variable, and then decode the times (xarray will decode any variable with a time-like units attribute into dates, regardless of its name).

```
In [1]: import xarray

In [2]: ds = xarray.open_dataset('cesm.TREFHT.160001-200512.selection.nc', decode_times=False)

In [3]: ds.time_bnds.attrs['units'] = ds.time.attrs['units']

In [4]: ds.time_bnds.attrs['calendar'] = ds.time.attrs['calendar']

In [5]: ds_decoded = xarray.decode_cf(ds)
```

> I am actually in favor of 3: also decode time_bnds

It would be nice if we could handle this automatically, though one issue that concerns me is how we would automatically determine which variable represents the time bounds in an arbitrary netCDF file (as mentioned above we currently do not have any variable-name-specific logic in xarray, which I think is a good thing). I do notice the time variable in your file has a `bounds` attribute, which points to the name `time_bnds`.  Is that something required by CF conventions?  We might be able to rely on that.","{""total_count"": 0, ""+1"": 0, ""-1"": 0, ""laugh"": 0, ""hooray"": 0, ""confused"": 0, ""heart"": 0, ""rocket"": 0, ""eyes"": 0}",,383791450
https://github.com/pydata/xarray/issues/2565#issuecomment-441222614,https://api.github.com/repos/pydata/xarray/issues/2565,441222614,MDEyOklzc3VlQ29tbWVudDQ0MTIyMjYxNA==,10050469,2018-11-23T11:54:14Z,2018-11-23T11:54:14Z,MEMBER,I am actually in favor of 3: also decode `time_bnds`,"{""total_count"": 0, ""+1"": 0, ""-1"": 0, ""laugh"": 0, ""hooray"": 0, ""confused"": 0, ""heart"": 0, ""rocket"": 0, ""eyes"": 0}",,383791450