A photo of the solar eclipse taken by Cloudflare network team member Bryton Herdes in Southern Illinois.
There are events that unite people, such as a total solar eclipse, which remind us humans living on planet Earth of our shared dependence on the sun. The excitement was evident 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 of people gathered outside to witness the passage of the Moon between the Earth and the Sun, casting darkness upon the fortunate. states. What happened to Internet traffic, amid the typical gesture of putting on and taking off eclipse glasses, depending on whether people were looking at the sky during the total solar eclipse, or before or after?
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 and moved from south to north, as shown in this NASA image of the eclipse’s path and percent darkness.
Looking at the United States in general terms, byte-delivered traffic was down 8% and request traffic was down 12% compared to the previous week at 7:00 PM UTC (2:00 PM Eastern, 12:00 PM Pacific).
Bytes delivered percentage change (-8% at 19:00 UTC)
Percent change in HTTP requests (-12% at 19:00 UTC)
The state-level perspective in terms of traffic decline at the time of the eclipse, compared to the week before, is much more revealing. Here is a summary of the traffic changes in the US states. We can almost follow the path of the eclipse, as shown in the previous NASA image.
Our data shows that Vermont, Arkansas, Indiana, Maine, New Hampshire, and Ohio experienced a traffic drop of 40% or more around the time of the eclipse. These states were all on the path of totality, which was not the case for several other states.
In the following table we provide a detailed overview of the same perspective as on the US map, organized by traffic drop. In all these graphs we use UTC as the time. We record the time of the largest traffic drop compared to the previous week, with an accuracy of five minutes, as well as the percentage drop compared to the previous week. States where it was possible to see at least part of the total solar eclipse are highlighted in bold. At the bottom are the numbers with no obvious difference.
Visualized, this is what Vermont’s 60% drop looks like:
And this is what the traffic decline in Arkansas, Maine and Indiana looks like:
In terms of states with larger populations, New York took the lead:
Mexico got the eclipse first
Before the eclipse became visible in the US, Mexico was the first to experience it. States within the eclipse zone, such as Coahuila, Durango and Sinaloa, experienced a noticeable drop in traffic. Even Mexico City, further south, was affected.
Here are the perspectives of the state of Durango and Coahuila:
Finally Canada: An island stopped to watch the solar eclipse
After Mexico and the US, Canada was next in the eclipse’s path. Prince Edward Island experienced the greatest impact in Canada. This region, with a population of less than 200,000, is one of the maritime provinces of Eastern Canada, located near New Brunswick and Nova Scotia in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. Next came New Brunswick and Newfoundland and Labrador.
Conclusion: the internet is a human game
As we have noted on previous occasions, human and nature-related events have a significant impact on 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 solar eclipse.
This was the last total solar eclipse visible in the contiguous United States until August 23, 2044, with the next solar eclipse of similar magnitude expected on August 12, 2045.
For these and other trends, visit Cloudflare Radar and follow us on social media @CloudflareRadar (X), https://noc.social/@cloudflareradar (Mastodon) and radar.cloudflare.com (Bluesky).
