Ice Storm

[rickoic]

Do you think the ice storm may be effecting some servers due to possible electric outages?

I had a brief hit here in northern Mississippi but other than that electric has stayed up, but possibly worse in other parts of the U.S.

[JimboPalmer]

Not all, but many servers will have backup power, either batteries to allow graceful shutdown or diesel generators (and batteries to give you time to start the generators) to allow constant uptime.

Ideally home users have a plan as well, but even if they are folding, their ISP may be down. When my neighborhood loses power, they all fuss that my lights are still on.
https://www.generac.com/all-products/generators
You can see they have generators in all sizes and price ranges.

[bruce]

Thankfully, I live in California and the ice storm is far away.... though it does look bad on the news.

(I am reminded of the blessing for the Tsar in "Fiddler on the Roof")

[JimboPalmer]

Monday and Tuesday the high is forecast to be 24F and the low 6F. Waste GPU will be a good idea!

[tomc001]

Due to the ice storm here in Oregon, my power was off for 6 days thus no folding at all. So I was doing my part in not overloading the servers.

[JimboPalmer]

I never lost electricity, but my hot water froze and my central heat failed. Once I make through tonight, (currently 24F, low of 13 degrees F) I should have lows in the 30s.

[JimF]

Do you think the ice storm may be effecting some servers due to possible electric outages?

I had a brief hit here in northern Mississippi but other than that electric has stayed up, but possibly worse in other parts of the U.S.

If you are referring to the Temple servers, I am 50 miles north of them and it was mainly just a lot of snow mixed with a little ice here. It mainly affected travel, but really no big deal by PA standards. I don't recall hearing of any power outages, though they probably had a few in rural areas.

I think it is mainly a question of education. The power customers had better start demanding a more reliable system. These events will get worse, before they get worse.

[comixgoddess]

Due to the ice storm here in Oregon, my power was off for 6 days thus no folding at all. So I was doing my part in not overloading the servers.

Same here. Power was out only three days, but it took an additional two days to get internet back up and running.

[bruce]

I'm thankful I live it Southern California. For the rest of you, I'm sorry for what you've been experiencing.

Yes, Texans made fun of us when our power distribution company's faulty lines created massive wildfires in Northern/Central California a few years ago but even as serious as those fires were, they didn't pose a threat to where I live. Since then, our power distribution system has supposedly been upgraded to meet the federally regulated standards and power is shared to/from areas outside California when needed. Personally, I have solar panels and net metering, which means I pay annually for what I use or they pay me if I generate more than I use. If I want to drive to the mountains to play in the snow it's only an hour away.

For the cold parts of the nation, it sounds really bad. Apparently is worse in Texas than elsewhere. Texas pushed for low cost power but I expect they'll decide that was an imperfect solution.

[ipkh]

Deregulation sounds good until things go wrong. California found out what happens when Electricity Generation goes to "Free Markets" and manipulators get involved. Texas has similarly found out that deregulating the grid from power generation has side effects.
Freezing weather is so uncommon that measures were not taken to mitigate flash freezing of equipment. But that might not have been a realistic option given expected weather events. I'm sure now the Texas Commission will require better/improved weather proofing going forward.
Even in Indiana where we have freezing weather, things break. My coworker had a gas station mishap where the pump wouldn't shut off and $100 of gas spilled out from the nozzle. But despite a foot of snowfall there were no power outages. This is only because Winter Storms are an expected possibility and freezing rain is not uncommon. Texas probably made different decisions given more normal weather patterns.

[gunnarre]

There were cases of frozen water lines and a few burst water mains here in Norway this winter due to sustained cold weather. We expect cold here, unlike in Texas, but even so this winter's cold spell was a bit harsher than most, due to a long-lasting weather pattern of wind from the east. I had to install pipe heaters to avoid frozen water lines, and I stopped CPU folding due to the high electricity cost.
We didn't have power outages, but due to the lack of precipitation over a long period, they had to go up and clean the high voltage isolators with alcohol: https://www.nrk.no/nordland/statnett-ma ... 1.15363262

[Nathan_P]

The US power grid is a national disgrace. Everything is on a pole meaning the weather gets at it all the time, transformers every where, ugly power poles everywhere.....

Where I live there is one transformer for our entire estate of 79 houses and 6 flats and not an exposed power cable in sight.

[JimF]

Whatever the old "normal" was, there will always be a new normal. I think that in the U.S., the middle part (the Great Plains, which includes parts of Texas) will see the most obvious effects first in terms of temperature and precipitation. But studies indicate that the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation (which includes the Gulf Stream) is changing, which will affect Europe and no doubt beyond.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate- ... lf-stream/