+Northern California and the county of Santa Cruz are experiencing +serious wildfires, including in the Santa Cruz mountains just north +of UCSC campus. +Campus has been evacuated and shutdowns are occurring. We believe +that the Genome Browser will not be affected, but it is possible +that if power is lost, backup power will not last indefinitely. +We do not know how long before the fire is contained or how far +it will progress before it is. +
++If the Genome Browser loses power, we will redirect traffic to our +mirror server in Bielefeld, Germany. + + +Our mirror server in Europe and our other in Yokahama, +Japan), are maintained to be identical to +the server in Santa Cruz, but you should know that your custom tracks +and saved sessions +are local to the machine where they were saved. +
++We do not expect to lose any data, as we have backups. Nevertheless, +we have alway advised that you should keep local copies of your data. +This would be a good time to make local backups of custom tracks, +if you do not have them, and save your sessions to a local file. To do +so, simply load a saved session and in the "Save Settings" section of +the page, name a local file. This small file contains the parameters to +recreate your sessions and can be uploaded to the European or Asian server. +
++Any custom tracks associated with sessions will have to be loaded +separately on the other servers. +You can back up custom tracks from a session by clicking the Submit button +next to "Save Custom Tracks," in that same section. Read more in this +news announcement from last year. +
++We should add that the Browser team wishes to express our sadness +and concern for the loss of property and displacement experienced by +many people in the UCSC community. We are doing everything we can to +help those who need it. It is possible that responses on the mailing +list will be delayed. +
+ -We are working hard to support the scientific effort against the COVID pandemic and are happy to announce eight new annotation tracks on the SARS-CoV-2 genome. These datasets reveal information about duplication regions, sequencing, gene identities, plasmid constructs, protein contact sites, and variant distribution. Like nearly all of our tracks, the data are open-access and downloadable through our Downloads page or Table Browser page. More information on each of these datasets can be obtained by reading the data track descriptions linked below.