Internet Weather Score: How VP Pulse Calculates UK Network Health
The Internet Weather Score is VP Pulse's composite 0–100 metric for UK internet infrastructure health. This guide explains how it's calculated and what the colours mean.
What Is the Internet Weather Score?
The Internet Weather Score is VP Pulse's top-level indicator of UK internet infrastructure health. It combines data from six monitoring systems into a single number from 0 to 100, updated every 60 seconds. Green (80–100) means the UK internet is operating normally. Amber (50–79) means degraded performance in one or more areas. Red (below 50) means significant issues affecting UK users.
What Goes Into the Score
The composite score weights six data sources:
DNS Performance (20%)
Based on the average query time across the five resolvers in VP Pulse's DNS race. Latency significantly above baseline (caused by resolver overload or upstream congestion) reduces this component.
BGP Stability (20%)
Based on the volume and type of BGP events from RIPE RIS. Normal background BGP churn has no impact on the score. Elevated announcement volumes, prefix withdrawals, or events consistent with route hijacking reduce this component significantly.
TLS Health (15%)
Based on a sample of UK domain TLS grades and recent certificate expiry events. Widespread TLS degradation (such as a certificate authority outage) would reduce this component.
UK Latency (25%)
The highest-weighted component — based on average latency across VP Pulse's four UK probe cities (London, Manchester, Edinburgh, Dublin) compared to rolling baseline. Latency is the most direct measurement of UK user experience.
Traffic Anomalies (10%)
Based on Cloudflare Radar data for UK internet traffic. Unexpected traffic drops or spikes indicate network events affecting a significant number of UK users.
Email Auth (10%)
Based on the proportion of monitored UK domains with strong DMARC policies and valid SPF/DKIM records. This changes slowly and reflects the overall email security posture of the UK internet.
Historical Context
The 30-day trend sparkline beneath the score shows whether today's reading is normal or unusual. A score of 72 in isolation looks amber — but if the 30-day baseline is 65, today is actually above average. Context matters.
When the Score Drops
Score drops below 70 are typically caused by: BGP anomalies affecting UK routing, latency spikes on one or more UK probe paths, DNS resolver performance degradation, or Cloudflare Radar detecting a UK traffic anomaly. VP Pulse push notifications alert subscribers when the score drops significantly below baseline.
The Internet Weather Score is visible at the top of the VP Pulse dashboard, updated every 60 seconds.