Effects of Cold Front on Internet Infrastructure - U.S. Midwest

Wed Jan 30 16:55:06 UTC 2019

Approximately 3 hrs ago we lost B-feed at Minneapolis Cologix.

Apparently the local utility requested that they move one side to 
generator due to the weather and high-utilization, and the ATS failed.

But we're up ...

On 1/30/19 10:50 AM, Mel Beckman wrote:
> Being a Minnesota native, I can tell you that while it is indeed cold, 
> this is nothing new i the Great White North :)  I am amaze a how 
> consistently the media overplays the severity of Midwest cold weather as 
> some kind of unique phenomenon. They amplify this by reporting the 
> wind-chill factor, which is the “what it feels like” equivalent in a 
> cold and windy environment. But equipment feels nothing, so windchill is 
> irrelevant.
> 
> For example, Minneapolis is -20F, but the news media instead reports 
> “-60F wind chill”, which, while dramatic, is not meaningful for most 
> purposes. I grew up in Minnesota with -30F and lower quite common, and 
> we walked to school in those temperatures. You just have to dress well. 
> Minneapolis is paved with tunnels and heated skyways to eliminate most 
> outdoor walking downtown.
> 
> As far as networks go, none of the ISPs I know of do anything different 
> than anywhere else in the country. Everyone has backup power. It’s 
> already common practice everywhere to exploit cooler winter ambient 
> temperatures to reduce HVAC requirements, so that’s not new either. But 
> it gets as hot in the Midwest in our summer as it is in SA for you now, 
> so everyone must still build out HVAC capacity to cover the hottest days.
> 
>   -mel beckman
> 
> On Jan 30, 2019, at 8:40 AM, Mark Tinka <mark.tinka at seacom.mu 
> <mailto:mark.tinka at seacom.mu>> wrote:
> 
>> For anyone running IP networks in the Midwest, are you having to do 
>> anything special to keep your networks up?
>>
>> For the data centres, is this cold front a chance to reduce air 
>> conditioning costs, or is it actually straining the infrastructure?
>>
>> I'm curious, from a +27-degree C summer's day here in Johannesburg.
>>
>> Mark.