And:
.
The last couple of days have seen a big geomagnetic storm, as evidenced by the Northern and Southern light displays.
I started taking an interest because yesterday morning around 11am, one of my computers failed catastrophically, and today another one froze completely - as did the repaired one from yesterday, again at around the same time of day. I discounted power problems as both of those pcs are on UPS and there was no sign of power disruption on either occasion.
I also discounted lightning damage as (a)its pretty uncommon here, and (b)the weather was overcast but dry.
We would be prone to electromagnetic disturbances as we have long external runs of network cabling. It could be just coincidence, but both of these machines had been running trouble-free for literally years now.
So, as Sherlock Holmes said:
“Once you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, no matter how improbable, must be the truth.”
If all this comes across as fanciful, see what wikipedia says about the Carrington Event.
More Aurora info here.