The dangers of sky-high computing
Amazon's cloud was struck by lightning earlier this week. And that's the truth.
On Wednesday evening at about 6:30pm Pacific time, some Amazon cloud sitters saw their floating servers disappear - and yes, the company blamed the temporary outage on a lightning strike.
According to a web post from the company, the strike zapped a power distribution unit in one of its data centers, taking out server instances in one - and only one - Availability Zone. Amazon's Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) serves up on-demand processing power from two separate geographic locations - the US and Europe - and each geographic region is split into multiple zones designed never to vanish at the same time.
"A lightning storm caused damage to a single Power Distribution Unit (PDU) in a single Availability Zone," the company said in a web post at 7:33pm. "While most instances were unaffected, a set of racks does not currently have power, so the instances on those racks are down."
Storms
© AP Photo/Matt Slocum
The sun sets behind a windmill after a severe storm swept through the Dallas-Fort Worth area, Wednesday, June 10, 2009, in Richardson, Texas
The sun sets behind a windmill after a severe storm swept through the Dallas-Fort Worth area, Wednesday, June 10, 2009, in Richardson, Texas
No deaths or injuries were reported from the storms that began whipping the Dallas-Fort Worth area Wednesday night with winds up to 70 mph. By the time the storms cleared the city, some areas of Dallas got more than 8 inches of rain.
More than 180,000 homes and businesses were without power Thursday night, said Megan Wright, a spokeswoman for Oncor Electric Delivery.
© Oscar van der Velde
"With my new zoom lens I can now magnify the sky above thunderstorms to get very detailed images of sprites," says van der Velde. "This amazing 'carrot sprite' occurred near the coast of southern France about 250 km away from me."
"Sprites are a true space weather phenomenon," he adds. "They develop in mid-air around 80 km altitude, growing in both directions, first down, then up. This happens when a fierce lightning bolt draws lots of charge from a cloud near Earth's surface. Electric fields [shoot] to the top of Earth's atmosphere--and the result is a sprite. The entire process takes about 20 milliseconds."
Have thunderstorms been more electrified this year?
So far, 2009 has been a deadly year for lightning strikes. Two people were killed on Wednesday, bringing the total number of lightning-related deaths to six, with 50 injuries reported total. A Southwest Airlines plane was struck by lightning in California earlier this week. Is this trend of lightning strikes on people and airplanes abnormal this year?
On average, 60 people are killed and over 350 people are injured by lightning each year, with June, July and August the most common months for deaths. In 2008, 27 people were killed by lightning and 303 injured.
As for aircraft, 66 have reported lightning strikes so far this year. Last year, 55 reported lightning strikes to airplanes occurred through May.
The number of deaths and the number of airplanes hit does not seem out of the ordinary this year. Actually, the number of lightning flashes is considerably less than what was reported this time last year. As of June 3, 2009, there have been 5,589,686 flashes, with 6,517,381 reported by June 3, 2008.
One of the reasons for this could be colder-than-normal weather across the northern tier of the country that has suppressed the number of thunderstorms and has significantly reduced the number of tornadoes this year. The number of reported tornadoes so far this year is 685, just over half of the average annual amount, which is 1,297.
So far, 2009 has been a deadly year for lightning strikes. Two people were killed on Wednesday, bringing the total number of lightning-related deaths to six, with 50 injuries reported total. A Southwest Airlines plane was struck by lightning in California earlier this week. Is this trend of lightning strikes on people and airplanes abnormal this year?
On average, 60 people are killed and over 350 people are injured by lightning each year, with June, July and August the most common months for deaths. In 2008, 27 people were killed by lightning and 303 injured.
As for aircraft, 66 have reported lightning strikes so far this year. Last year, 55 reported lightning strikes to airplanes occurred through May.
The number of deaths and the number of airplanes hit does not seem out of the ordinary this year. Actually, the number of lightning flashes is considerably less than what was reported this time last year. As of June 3, 2009, there have been 5,589,686 flashes, with 6,517,381 reported by June 3, 2008.
One of the reasons for this could be colder-than-normal weather across the northern tier of the country that has suppressed the number of thunderstorms and has significantly reduced the number of tornadoes this year. The number of reported tornadoes so far this year is 685, just over half of the average annual amount, which is 1,297.
© Stephen O'Meara
This isn't the first time lightning has been observed around a volcano. Recent examples include Alaska's Mt. Redoubt, Chile's Chaitin volcano and Kilauea in Hawaii. Clouds of water vapor shoot out of these volcanoes in a dusty mixture likened to a "dirty thunderstorm," and lightning emerges from within the turbulent plume.
© unknown
The storms began early in the afternoon and moved north toward Portland, which saw strong winds, heavy rain and a lightning show at rush hour. Several cities saw golf-ball sized hail and there were unconfirmed reports of funnel clouds and tornado activity.
The National Weather Service lifted a severe thunderstorm watch early Thursday evening. The watch was expected to stay in effect until 9 p.m., but the storms were quicker than expected.
Power outages were reported across the storm area. Portland General Electric said about 50,000 of its customers had no lights as of 6 p.m. The utility said the hardest-hit areas were in Salem, Silverton, Woodburn, West Linn and Oregon City.
Temperatures were in the mid-70s in the Willamette Valley when the storm hit, but quickly dropped into the lower 60s. Dan Keirns, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Portland, said the storm was the type usually seen midsummer, not late spring.
Dramatic, even explosive thunderstorms slammed Central Oregon Thursday, pelting the area with more lightning, intense downpours and golf ball-sized hail and knocking down trees and power lines, cutting off power for thousands and causing it to flicker for thousands more.
The National Weather Service issued a severe thunderstorm watch for the region through 8 p.m. and also a severe thunderstorm warning at mid-afternoon as one of the larger storms located south of Culver, moving north at 20 mph.
Downed lines blocked Highway 126 near Cloverdale for a time, and other downed trees were reported in Deschutes River Woods and southeast Bend.
Police and fire crews scrambled to calls about possible lines and trees down as the skies turned very dark and storms swept through the area before a brief respite, even sunshine at mid-afternoon.
About 2,400 Pacific Power customers lost power at 1:40 p.m. for almost two hours due to a storm in the China Hat Road area southeast of Bend. Another 1,000 Central Electric Cooperative customers lost power for varying lengths as the storms moved through, news partner KBND radio reported.
The National Weather Service issued a severe thunderstorm watch for the region through 8 p.m. and also a severe thunderstorm warning at mid-afternoon as one of the larger storms located south of Culver, moving north at 20 mph.
Downed lines blocked Highway 126 near Cloverdale for a time, and other downed trees were reported in Deschutes River Woods and southeast Bend.
Police and fire crews scrambled to calls about possible lines and trees down as the skies turned very dark and storms swept through the area before a brief respite, even sunshine at mid-afternoon.
About 2,400 Pacific Power customers lost power at 1:40 p.m. for almost two hours due to a storm in the China Hat Road area southeast of Bend. Another 1,000 Central Electric Cooperative customers lost power for varying lengths as the storms moved through, news partner KBND radio reported.
© phtogirl
In the Oregon Department of Forestry's (ODF) Southwest Oregon District, 32 lightning-caused fires have been reported, with the largest about five acres.
"This one occurred in the Applegate drainage," ODF's Greg Alexander said. "On the first day of the storms, it was very dry, and then we had some moisture in the following days."
He said the district has experienced lightning daily from May 29 to the present. Reports of fire continue to trickle in, with three new ones detected on Wednesday.
Two women in the Inland Empire are killed and another injured in lightning-related incidents. Lightning also ignites more than a dozen brush fires.
Thunder rumbled through the Southland and freak storms pelted the region with hail, lightning and unseasonal rain, killing two women in the Inland Empire, bedeviling aviation and touching off more than a dozen brush fires on the parched mountain slopes ringing Los Angeles County.
Thunder rumbled through the Southland and freak storms pelted the region with hail, lightning and unseasonal rain, killing two women in the Inland Empire, bedeviling aviation and touching off more than a dozen brush fires on the parched mountain slopes ringing Los Angeles County.
A golfer in Denmark reportedly has been killed by lightning.
The national broadcaster DR says the man in his 60s interrupted his golf game when a thunderstorm began and was walking to a club house when the lightning struck and killed him.
The national broadcaster DR says the man in his 60s interrupted his golf game when a thunderstorm began and was walking to a club house when the lightning struck and killed him.
