diff --git a/modules/util/viirs.py b/modules/util/viirs.py
index 239a6edd2a617cf3104d84790555ae8d487c24e3..649aedccd82fd875854be5145245eb0a76894b21 100644
--- a/modules/util/viirs.py
+++ b/modules/util/viirs.py
@@ -112,11 +112,16 @@ def run_mean_std(directory):
                 try:
                     h5f = h5py.File(mfile, 'r')
                 except:
+                    print('cant open file: ', mfile)
                     continue
                 for param in mod_res_params:
                     name = 'observation_data/'+param
-                    gvals = get_grid_values_all(h5f, name, range_name=None, stride=10)
-                    data_dct[param].append(gvals.flatten())
+                    try:
+                        gvals = get_grid_values_all(h5f, name, range_name=None, stride=10)
+                        data_dct[param].append(gvals.flatten())
+                    except:
+                        print('problem reading file: ', mfile)
+                        continue
                 print(mfile)
                 h5f.close()