Issues with gazebo_wind_plugin

I’m trying to use gazebo_wind_plugin to simulate wind and it works with the preset values in the .world file but

  1. I can’t read the values that are being set on each update through the ~/world_wind topic.

  2. I can’t set values for the wind through the ~/world_wind topic. (AFAICT it’s not an issue with the message syntax, it just refuses to accept a message for that topic.)

I’ve also tried doing both these things through a separate plugin but that doesn’t work either.
Right now I’m trying to go through the call stack to see what the issue is but if anyone has encountered this before and knows what the solution is, I’d be grateful for any help.