At this time of day it feels like a daily maintenance that's been delayed too long.
As another example I was on Great Lakes but a few moments ago and it appeared as though folks were saying the shard had not gone down for maintenance at the normal time.
Keep in mind that the current time is 2 hours past the norm.
Since this does appear to be something of a mini-pattern it's not out of line to hazard a guess that it's related in some ways to the lag and other issues people have been experiencing.
A cause or another effect I can't even begin to guess.
In the present environment, though, taken together it's all extremely worrying.
-Galen's player