A power outage in Colorado caused U.S. official time be 4.8 microseconds off

https://www.npr.org/2025/12/21/nx-s1-5651317/colorado-us-official-time-microseconds-nist-clocks

by bryan0 • 7 months ago

30 6 7 months ago

npr.org

EgregiousCube• 7 months ago

But what was the SLA?

_wire_• 7 months ago

If they don't know what time it is, how can it be 4.8 us off?

deadbolt• 7 months ago

All of the atomic clocks continued ticking through the power outage last week thanks to their battery backup systems, according to NIST supervisory research physicist Jeff Sherman. What failed was the connection between some of the clocks and NIST's measurement and distribution systems, he said.

extraduder_ire• 7 months ago

For reference, that's 4720 light feet or 1440 light metres.

ursAxZA• 7 months ago

If the official time drifts by 4.8 microseconds, should I worry about my VHS timer recordings?

MisterTea• 7 months ago

and a backup generator subsequently failed,

I wonder what the failure was. I also wonder if they load tested the unit(s) to ensure full operation at some recent point. That's how you find weird things like fuel fouling that obstructs pipes and filters which under no-load testing scenarios would not be an issue but could potentially stall under load.

A power outage in Colorado caused U.S. official time be 4.8 microseconds off

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