recursive dns will not resolve some .gov sites

I have a recursive only dns server. It works for almost any lookup. However if I try to do a nslookup for www.weather.gov it will time out and says no servers could be reached. I did some looking and found the master is not a parent (for weather.gov). All the parents will reply with the address, but the master will also time out. Are my recursive servers trying to go to the master instead of a parent? How can I tell and how can I correct it?
Thanks.

Master is dns02.woc.noaa.gov 140.90.33.207

Parents are;
ns-mw.noaa.gov 140.172.17.237
ns-e.noaa.gov 140.90.33.237
ns-nw.noaa.gov 161.55.32.2