https://blog.cloudflare.com/total-eclipse-internet-traffic-impacts-mexico-us-canada Get Started Free|Contact Sales The Cloudflare Blog The Cloudflare Blog Subscribe to receive notifications of new posts: [ ] Subscribe magnifier iconhamburger menu All Posts Product News Speed & Reliability Security Zero Trust Developers AI Policy Partners Life at Cloudflare All Posts Product News Speed & Reliability Security Zero Trust Developers AI Policy Partners Life at Cloudflare magnifier icon Total eclipse of the Internet: traffic impacts in Mexico, the US, and Canada 04/09/2024 * Joao Tome Joao Tome 5 min read [Image_20240408_140523_866-x]A photo of the eclipse taken by Bryton Herdes, a member of Cloudflare's Network team, in Southern Illinois. There are events that unite people, like a total solar eclipse, reminding us, humans living on planet Earth, of our shared dependence on the sun. Excitement was obvious in Mexico, several US states, and Canada during the total solar eclipse that occurred on April 8, 2024. Dubbed the Great North American Eclipse, millions gathered outdoors to witness the Moon pass between Earth and the Sun, casting darkness over fortunate states. Amidst the typical gesture of putting the eclipse glasses on and taking them off, depending on if people were looking at the sky during the total eclipse, or before or after, what happened to Internet traffic? Cloudflare's data shows a clear impact on Internet traffic from Mexico to Canada, following the path of totality. The eclipse occurred between 15:42 UTC and 20:52 UTC, moving from south to north, as seen in this NASA image of the path and percentage of darkness of the eclipse. [nasaimage] Looking at the United States in aggregate terms, bytes delivered traffic dropped by 8%, and request traffic by 12% as compared to the previous week at 19:00 UTC (14:00 Eastern, 12:00 Pacific). [cloudflare-radar-traffic-trends-xy-20240408-20240408--1--2]Bytes delivered percentage change (-8% at 19:00 UTC) [percchange-eclipse-2024-04-08-at-22]HTTP requests percentage change (-12% at 19:00 UTC) The state-level perspective in terms of traffic drop at the time of the eclipse, as compared to the previous week, is much more revealing. Here's a summary of the US states' traffic changes. We can almost trace the path of the eclipse, as shown in the previous NASA image. [Eclipse-US-2024-04-08-at-23] From our data, Vermont, Arkansas, Indiana, Maine, New Hampshire, and Ohio experienced traffic drops of 40% or more around the time of the eclipse. These states were all in the path of totality, which was not the case for several others. In the next table, we provide a detailed breakdown of the same perspective shown on the US map ordered by drop in traffic. In all of these charts, we're using UTC as the time. We include the time of the biggest traffic drop compared to the previous week, at a 5-minute granularity, and also the percentage of drop compared to the previous week. States where it was possible to see at least part of the total eclipse are highlighted in bold. At the bottom are those with no clear difference. The US: traffic change at time of the eclipse State Time of drop (UTC) Local time % of drop Vermont 19:25 15:25 -60% Arkansas 18:50 13:50 -54% Indiana 19:05 15:05 -50% Maine 19:30 15:30 -48% New Hampshire 19:20 15:20 -40% Ohio 19:10 15:10 -40% Kentucky 19:05 14:05 -33% Massachusetts 19:25 15:25 -33% Michigan 19:15 15:15 -32% Kansas 18:50 13:50 -31% Missouri 18:55 13:55 -31% Connecticut 19:20 15:20 -29% Maryland 19:15 15:15 -29% New York 19:25 15:25 -29% Oklahoma 18:45 13:45 -29% Rhode Island 19:25 15:25 -29% New Jersey 19:20 15:20 -28% Arizona 18:15 11:15 -27% Illinois 19:05 14:05 -26% Pennsylvania 19:15 15:15 -26% West Virginia 19:15 15:15 -24% Wisconsin 19:05 14:05 -22% Wyoming 18:20 12:20 -19% Alaska 20:15 12:15 -18% Delaware 19:20 15:20 -18% District of Columbia 19:15 15:15 -16% New Mexico 18:25 12:25 -16% Oregon 18:15 11:15 -16% Nebraska 18:50 13:50/12:50 -15% Texas 18:45 13:45 -15% Colorado 18:25 12:25 -14% Virginia 18:20 14:20 -14% Alabama 19:00 14:00 -13% Tennessee 19:00 15:00/14:00 -13% Iowa 18:15 13:15 -12% Nevada 18:10 11:10 -12% Georgia 19:05 15:05 -11% North Carolina 19:10 15:10 -10% California 18:15 11:15 -9% Florida 18:15 14:15 -7% Utah 18:15 12:15 -5% Montana 18:25 12:25 -4% South Carolina 19:00 15:00 -4% Hawaii -- -- -- Louisiana -- -- -- Minnesota -- -- -- Mississippi -- -- -- North Dakota -- -- -- Idaho -- -- -- South Dakota -- -- -- Washington -- -- -- Visualized, here's what Vermont's 60% drop looks like: [vermont] And here's what the traffic drops in Arkansas, Maine, and Indiana look like: [arkansas] [maine] [indiana] In terms of states with larger populations, New York took the lead: [newyork] Mexico got the eclipse first Before the eclipse became visible in the US, Mexico experienced it first. States within the eclipse zone, such as Coahuila, Durango, and Sinaloa, experienced noticeable drops in traffic. Even Mexico City, located further south, was affected. Mexico: traffic change at time of the eclipse State Time of drop (UTC) Local time % of drop Durango 18:15 12:15 -57% Coahuila 18:15 12:15 -43% Sinaloa 18:10 11:10 -34% Mexico City 18:10 12:10 -22% Here's the Durango and Coahuila state perspectives: [durango] [cohal] Canada at last: an island stopped to see the eclipse After Mexico and the US, Canada was next in the path of the eclipse. Prince Edward Island experienced the most significant impact in Canada. This region, with a population of less than 200,000, is one of eastern Canada's maritime provinces, situated off New Brunswick and Nova Scotia in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. Next came New Brunswick and Newfoundland and Labrador. Canada: traffic change at time of the eclipse State Time of drop (UTC) Local time % of drop Prince Edward Island 19:35 16:35 -48% New Brunswick 19:30 16:30 -40% Newfoundland and Labrador 19:40 16:10 -32% Nova Scotia 19:35 16:35 -27% Quebec 19:25 15:25 -27% Ontario 19:15 15:15 -21% Conclusion: Internet is a human's game As we've observed during previous occasions, human and nature-related events significantly impact Internet traffic. This includes Black Friday/Cyber Week, Easter, Ramadan celebrations, the coronation of King Charles III, the recent undersea cable failure in Africa, which affected 13 countries, and now, this total eclipse. This was the last total solar eclipse visible in the contiguous United States until August 23, 2044, with the next eclipse of similar breadth projected for August 12, 2045. For this and other trends, visit Cloudflare Radar and follow us on social media at @CloudflareRadar (X), cloudflare.social/@radar (Mastodon), and radar.cloudflare.com (Bluesky). We protect entire corporate networks, help customers build Internet-scale applications efficiently, accelerate any website or Internet application, ward off DDoS attacks, keep hackers at bay, and can help you on your journey to Zero Trust. Visit 1.1.1.1 from any device to get started with our free app that makes your Internet faster and safer. To learn more about our mission to help build a better Internet, start here. If you're looking for a new career direction, check out our open positions. Discuss on Hacker News Cloudflare RadarTrendsInternet Traffic Follow on X Joao Tome|@emot Cloudflare|@cloudflare Related posts March 26, 2024 1:00 PM From .com to .beauty: The evolving threat landscape of unwanted email In this 2023-early 2024 email analysis, we examine how certain generic Top-Level Domains (TLDs) are primarily used for spam and phishing, and their evolution over a year. There are many trends in email threats to examine... 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