{"id":7226,"date":"2014-07-18T13:34:23","date_gmt":"2014-07-18T12:34:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ispreview.co.uk\/?p=7226"},"modified":"2014-07-18T13:34:23","modified_gmt":"2014-07-18T12:34:23","slug":"broadband-isps-braced-heavy-weekend-thunder-rain-storms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ispreview.co.uk\/index.php\/2014\/07\/broadband-isps-braced-heavy-weekend-thunder-rain-storms.html","title":{"rendered":"Broadband ISPs Braced for Weekend of Heavy Thunder and Rain Storms"},"content":{"rendered":"

Internet and telephone providers across the United Kingdom, particularly those in England, are bracing themselves for a weekend of turbulent weather as the meeting of a high and low pressure front converge to create heavy thunder and rain storms, which could cause damage to telecoms networks and create connectivity problems for customers.<\/p>\n

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According to the Met Office<\/a>, “High pressure is situated to the north of the UK, with low pressure to the southwest. This had the effect of pulling warm air from Spain, across the UK, leading to a band of thundery showers developing. This is indicated by the trough line shown across the south of England<\/em>.”<\/p>\n

\"19th<\/p>\n

Mercifully none of the UK is currently the subject of a Red Warning level for serious storms, although the areas anticipated to be worst affected – Amber Warning<\/strong>\u00a0<\/span>– tend to include the East Midlands, East of England, London & South East England, North East England, North West England, South West England, Wales, West Midlands, Yorkshire & Humber.<\/p>\n

Naturally heavy rainfall can easily cause flooding and create headaches for telecoms operators like BTOpenreach, especially when they occur over such a wide area. At the same time Thunder and Lighting can trigger power surges and cause electromagnetic interference, which is sometimes enough to knock your Internet connection offline (remotely or locally), especially if you own older\/cheaper kit with poorly shielded components.<\/p>\n

Last year Eclipse Internet produced a lovely real-time video that demonstrated how a powerful storm, tracking its way across England, could impact the connectivity of their copper line based broadband customers. The video is re-posted again below, with yellow, orange and red dots representing failing connections as the circled storm progresses.<\/p>\n