Why Does My Internet Connection Drop When It Rains?

“Oh no! It’s pouring again? Now the internet won’t work! Drat, and double drat!”

When the weather gets wet and gloomy and you are stuck indoors, the best thing you can think of doing is getting tucked in your cozy couch and treating yourself with a cup of hot chocolate and a bowl of warm crisps, while watching your favorite show or movie on Netflix… but what if you can’t?

Isn’t it infuriating when your internet connection bails on you right when you need it the most? Sometimes a rainy day can make your internet connection just as slow and dreary as you are due to the poor weather but what is the reason behind this?

Your internet connection is likely to drop when it rains mainly because of two things:

1- Traditional Copper Wiring

If your ISP offers a Digital Subscriber Line (DSL), Asymmetric (ADSL) or Symmetric (SDSL), it means your internet is being run over copper phone lines that have been buried in the ground or hovering on the utility poles for a sufficiently long time.

These decade old, traditional copper wires were probably not designed to cater to the rapidly growing needs of the digital world and are likely to ditch you when it’s pouring down.

Copper is only suitable for voice service and when it comes to relaying data packets, it’s nearly inefficient. Copper wiring uses electrical pulse to transmit data. If your ISP uses copper cables to provide internet , the service is most likely to drop during rain because copper conducts electricity. When rainwater enters the underground cable traps or gets into the hanging cable’s covering, it interferes with the electric signal and breaks it down. Result: a sluggish internet that does not even load a website.

2- Network Congestion

Even if the traditional copper cables survive the rain, they seem to fail when it comes to coping with high volumes of internet traffic. When it rains, most of us decide to stay indoors and end up consuming more Mbps than usual to survive the dreary weather.

When a large number of people is streaming, downloading and gaming at the same time, the internet speeds may slow down due to a greater than normal individual bandwidth demand. After all, the internet supply is relatively finite. In order to cope with the excessive demand of data transfer many ISPs deploy data throttling or other optimizations like selective bandwidth to prevent hiccups in transmission - that can actually kill your internet speed on a congested rainy day when you need it the most.

To avoid issues associated with network congestion, you could subscribe to AT&T internet which is fiber-based.

Looking for a Solution? Keep Reading!

If you are living in a coastal city like Tampa, FL then getting a highly reliable internet connection is the only way you can prevent your Mbps from dropping with the raindrops.

Spectrum Internet uses a hybrid fiber-coaxial cable (HFC) network to provide internet services. HFC is a unified network of fiber optic and coaxial cables - highly flexible, with an outstanding mechanical performance in terms of transmitting large volumes of data, HFC also exhibits great environmental resistance.

Replacing your traditional copper-oriented internet connection with a faster and more reliable one can add so much more happiness to a rainy day. Efficient Network Congestion Management empowers Spectrum to facilitate a satisfactory broadband internet experience to its end-users. With Spectrum managing network resources constructively at times of high internet traffic, especially on rainy days, rest assured nothing can keep you from enjoying your favorite Netflix even if it rains cats and dogs.

On rare occasions, if you do face any internet issue, Spectrum customer support is available 24/7 to solve your problem so that you can continue using your 100 Mbps-fast internet all day, every day!

Not all products, pricing, and services are available in all areas. Pricing and actual speeds may vary. Internet speed based on wired connection. Restrictions apply.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Why Does My Internet Connection Drop When It Rains?

Your internet connection drops because of network congestion and traditional old copper wires. Copper wires conduct electricity and get damaged when rain water enters.

Is Spectrum internet available in my area?

The solution is to switch to reliable internet provider like Spectrum. Contact Spectrum internet service and ask about available plans and bundles in your area!