diff --git a/modulefiles/gsi_common.lua b/modulefiles/gsi_common.lua
index cd52ff877f..a3442bf134 100644
--- a/modulefiles/gsi_common.lua
+++ b/modulefiles/gsi_common.lua
@@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ Load common modules to build GSI on all machines
 
 local netcdf_ver=os.getenv("netcdf_ver") or "4.7.4"
 
-local bufr_ver=os.getenv("bufr_ver") or "11.5.0"
+local bufr_ver=os.getenv("bufr_ver") or "11.7.0"
 local bacio_ver=os.getenv("bacio_ver") or "2.4.1"
 local w3emc_ver=os.getenv("w3emc_ver") or "2.9.1"
 local sp_ver=os.getenv("sp_ver") or "2.3.3"
diff --git a/src/gsi/read_prepbufr.f90 b/src/gsi/read_prepbufr.f90
index 7c002d2720..f992ace329 100644
--- a/src/gsi/read_prepbufr.f90
+++ b/src/gsi/read_prepbufr.f90
@@ -3057,7 +3057,11 @@ subroutine read_prepbufr(nread,ndata,nodata,infile,obstype,lunout,twindin,sis,&
  
         do k=1,ndata
            ikx=nint(cdata_out(10,k))
-           itype=ictype(ikx)
+           if (ikx>0) then
+              itype=ictype(ikx)
+           else
+              itype=0
+           endif
            if( itype ==230 .or. itype ==231 .or. itype ==233) then
               prest=r10*exp(cdata_out(4,k))
               if (prest <100.0_r_kind) cycle