NIST's NTP clock was microseconds from disaster

The podcast details a recent power outage at the NIST facility in Boulder, Colorado, which caused their main ensemble clock to lose track of UTC, resulting in a deviation of less than 5 microseconds. The outage was due to extreme wind gusts leading to a power cut, followed by a backup generator failure. While this deviation was insignificant for most general users of NTP timing servers, it was critical for scientists and universities relying on NIST's more specialized timing signals. The podcast explains how NIST staff managed to restore power and maintain the time servers online, highlighting the redundancy within the system, including the successful failover of the US GPS system to the WWV Fort Collins campus. It concludes by emphasizing the fragility of timing infrastructure and the U.S.'s efforts to find alternatives to GPS for Position, Navigation, and Timing (PNT) solutions, such as the proposed Broadcast Positioning System (BPS).