Comment Solar flares? (Score 3) 138
Given the current solar activity, I would suggest a solar flare as the likely cause of the outage. Radio propagation is currently unstable and could worsen. It's prudent to anticipate potential outages affecting long systems such as power grids, communication networks, and even undersea cables. I recall a significant solar event in the early 1960s that painted the night sky a vivid blood red, disrupted many radio and TV channels, and triggered circuit breakers in parts of the Northeastern US and Canada power grid.