New York Sky Turns Bright Blue After Transformer Explosion
nytimes.com
nytimes.com
At first my TV blips, my spotify shuts down and outside you could see this very bright turquoise light all over the place. It was bright like it was a daytime just in the green blue color. At first I thought it must had been some fireworks nearby, New Year is coming, right? But there was no fireworks noise, no party noise, nothing, just this bright green lit city. I open the window and some lady in the building across me does the same and shouts 'wtf is that?!'.
I realize this was not a party and my brain starts spinning..
1. EMP attack, since the TV got affected 2. Asteroid or comet entering the atmosphere and messing up the magnetosphere 3. Strong solar outburst, causing some local aurora
I recently watched Robert Schoch's interview where he discussed huge solar outbursts at the end of last ice age and how the sightings of resulting auroras might have made it into ancient cultures.
[https://youtu.be/Vka2ZgzZTvo roughly at 21:00]
In the end I rushed to the rooftop, scared as f, and noticed this was just a transformer on fire at nearby power plant. Took a video, waited it out and went back.
I'm glad that you were ok. I would probably have over-reacted by diving under the bed. The lesson that I took from the footage of the Chelyabinsk meteor (1) is this:
When people see a sudden bright light in the sky, the usual reaction is for them to go to the window to see what it is. So then the blast wave arrives in time to give them a face full of flying glass shards. (2)
Don't do this! Doesn't matter if you're being nuked or if it's only a meteor, get down and stay away from the windows! Nothing good will come of having a look-see.
1) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chelyabinsk_meteor
2) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chelyabinsk_meteor#Injuries_an...
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/halifax-explosion...
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halifax_Explosion#Disaster
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halifax_Explosion#Destruction_...
Also, forest fires are not typically sudden flashes of light or found in urban areas. Context matters.
Also, the lights my blind you. Then the carnivorous plants come.
If you detonate a nuclear weapon above a city, no matter how far above, you will call upon you a nuclear response. There’s no difference between an EMP attempt and a nuclear strike. So why would you attempt an EMP attack when that means giving up most of the destructive force to maybe burn out powerlines, and guaranteed surface nuclear response on your territory?
Stuxnet like attacks are way way more plausible and likely.
Like HS physics
It comes across as somewhat condescending and naive to refer to a HS class as having a notable amount of science background. And a reason to dismiss other sources of information.
Or, the HS physics overview that you and I share simply doesn't dip very deeply into these topics.
If I recall correctly they mostly used RDX.
What does actually work and have been operationally used are graphite bombs designed to short out electrical equipment. Those are much cheaper and more effective than EMP weapons.
I don't think you can say EMP weapons don't exist. I know what you're trying to say, but attacking a city with an EMP strike will be seen international ly as far more favorable than an actual strike.
Also, an EMP strike can be detonated really high in the atmosphere where we would have zero chance to intercept and is more economical for non first world countries.
"The transformer explosion in Astoria was... right outside my window. So bright I couldn’t look directly at it."
Care to share the video you took? :)
This article is more factual, characterizing it as a electrical fault creating an arc: https://abc7ny.com/electrical-arc-turns-night-sky-blue-in-ny...
It is curious that 1) it happened at all, and 2) system protection didn't immediately isolate the circuit.
So you can have long lasting big arc that does not draw enough energy to trigger circuit breakers.
In the protection schemes used on the bulk electrical system, we have very sensitive relaying that can pick up on faults of even milli-amps (remember at high voltage even a small amount of current can dissipate a lot of energy) to detect, for instance, high impedance ground faults or turn-to-turn faults inside a transformer.
What is different is how the breakers are controlled - rather than being its own stand-alone overcurrent protection device as in a home electrical panel, it's just a dumb device controlled by one or more multifunction microprocessor relays that are designed to detect a variety of power system fault conditions and clear them rapidly to avoid damage to expensive equipment.
https://old.reddit.com/r/Damnthatsinteresting/comments/aa632...
Youtube doesn't post process vertical videos correctly, while Facebook, Reddit, Instagram, and many other sites keep the processed video in its flexible aspect ratio - primarily for their mobile users who would have no UX problem.
Interesting how that hasn't made it into the discussion, I feel like people will just stop talking about it when the UX is fixed
As good as it was, I never wanted to watch videos in that way.
Nothing interesting. Astoria is a pretty great neighborhood tho. We have a 24-hour fruit market next to another 24-hour fruit market.
I.e. unless that transformer was stupendously large there's no way the magnetic field would reach a home 2 blocks away.
But I appreciate you at least trying to answer, so thanks.
United Brothers is interesting. It's an institution, but the family's that owns it makes their real money from real estate now. And apples. Good apples. Around October the apple barn next to the main United building is the best smelling place in NYC. $0.89/lb.
After moving to NYC, I was shocked by how few of those there are left and they're only becoming more rare.
After a couple hours, they isolated the circuit, and shut it down.
I was driving at night and suddenly my heart jumped as a helicopter suddenly shined its bright spotlight straight at my car, like in the movies. It was hovering 20 feet off the ground about 200 feet away, and pointing straight at me.
After a second or two I realised the ‘helicopter’ was just my brain’s initial attempt to interpret what I was seeing. There was no helicopter, it was a transformer at the top of a pole that exploded.
The “spotlight” was not focused in any one direction but shining in all directions equally, so it was damn bright.
You hardly ever see anything so bright, which was why the “spotlight” thing made sense to my brain at first. And “helicopter” since it was up in the air.
It stayed lit for only a couple seconds and then the street plunged into darkness, all street lights off, as a few errant will-o-wisps sputtered out of the remains of the transformer.
No light show that I could see as it was early afternoon, but holy crap did the noise ever scare me. The window was open and it made this incredibly loud Bzzzzzz for about 10 seconds, then a small explosion. Took my brain about 20 seconds to connect the dots. See the smoking transformer helped.
Then there was a loud POP and all the lights on the street went out.
Not sure what happened next, as it seemed like a good time to leave. Moral: don't do that.
Hence, I always carry a couple of pushbuttons and some 15m of cable in my toolkit - wiring them in parallel with the buttons normally starting the show, retreating, saying a brief prayer to the patron saint of electricians and starting up.
Did a system on a ship a few years ago, all set, me sitting in the corridor outside the drive suite and pressing the button closing the main contactor, only to be greeted by the tell-tale sound of a door being blown off its hinges and an arc forming. Oh.
Cue incredible light show on the bulkhead opposite the drive suite door; after a second of this, I come to my senses and figure the so-called arc safe contactor -well- isn't.
I push the button jury-rigged to cut power at the generator end, only to have nothing whatsoever happen. Oh oh.
Still arcing. I key my VHF to alert the engine room to kill the generator set and alert them to the fire getting started in the drive suite, only to be told in no uncertain terms to keep quiet as they were busy with an emergency.
Seconds later, ship goes black (and eerily quiet!) before the sound of boots running down the corridor as the emergency lights kick in.
I've never felt as relieved as I did when the firefighting crew later told me that I'd been most unlucky - a pump starter in the drive suite (not our delivery) had opted out of existence and had sooted down all of my precious kit.
It had blown up the very same moment I tried to start my equipment for the first time - and for a few minutes I was certain I had contributed to taking an investment in the several hundred million dollar range off-hire for however long it took to replace the damaged electronics.
Instead, the crew apologised profusely for having me come all the way to the wrong side of the planet only to see my delivery go up in flames not of my own making.
Priceless.
I'll remember the sound, the light and the smell - not to mention that sinking feeling - to the end of my days, though.
Also make sure that your employer provides you appropriate arc-flash protective equipment if you're doing that kind of work.
Low voltage, high power systems often have very high arc flash hazard.
That makes for some quite impressive feeders!
And about radio interference. This is 60 Hz, so I doubt that's an issue.
At close proximity, the huge amount of heat that can be produced by a high-current arc as well as the blast wave (known as arc blast) is much more dangerous, and can be fatal. It is a serious hazard for utility and electrical workers.
The actual source of the bright light was blocked by a building, so it looked a little like what I imagine the aurora borealis looks like. Then it started to rapidly change colors and flicker -- like fireworks, but without the noise.
In NYC, stuff happens all the time that is completely innocuous. There's an outdoor venue (Randall's Island) relatively nearby that often has music festivals. In the past few months I have had a very vivid light flashing outside that turned out to be from a construction crane about 8 blocks away; another time a red glow was from the lights of fire engines amassed on a neighboring street during an actual fire.
I mention this if only to say it is very easy to criticize someone's behavior in a situation like this after the fact, but when it is happening, the thought that this could be a huge explosion does not even register.
If there is a flash and you hear no sound, it doesn’t mean it’s safe either - sound travels 300m/s, so if there was an explosion 2.5miles away, you would only see bright visuals on the sky, no sound, for the first 10-13sec, and then the shockwave would hit...
I've never gotten a good explanation for what it was, though this picture makes me think lightning struck an electricity sub station, caused a brief electrical fire which lit up the sky as it got more intense, then died off.
https://twitter.com/reustle/status/1078476019051446273
Felt like fireworks without the sound
LGA got shut down briefly because of the power outage. Amazingly, they had it back online in an hour. Which was great for us because we flew out of there this morning.
ICD-10-CM code H16.139 - Photokeratitis, Unspecified Eye.
It's no-joke. You need a mask or you immediately look away. No exceptions.
The event itself though is a really interesting example of 21st century phenomena observation. Much like the meteor over Chelyabinsk, so much video from a bunch of nearby cameras (dash cam's in Russia and smartphones in New York), it creates an amazing amount of raw data that people can sift through to try to figure out what is going on.
For various reasons, it can be impractical or not economic to provide very sensitive, very fast protection schemes for distribution systems. An example would be single-wire Earth-return distribution systems which still exist in rural areas of the USA.
But rest assured, there are transformer failures on a daily basis all around the world.
In the US there are transformers everywhere, you can see a house and a small transformer nearby.
In Europe they have this big monsters that cost several million dollars and require a train to move.
In Europe transformers in the city use to be underground and you won't see anything but a blackout of power.
It happened in Madrid some years ago.
Old transformers are very toxic as mineral oil with aromatic rings is burned,which is carcinogenic. New transformers use Hexafluoride SHF6 that are smaller, innocuous and easier to control.
But it cost a lot of money to update your infrastructure.
New York also has experimental superconductor lines.
PCBs: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polychlorinated_biphenyl
Europe is just denser. But frankly, you don't seem to know what you're talking about.
1.2-5MW transformers are really everywhere in France/Switzerland. Sometimes many per villages.
It makes sense: You prefer to have two transformers far apart than a big one and 2kms of 230/380V wiring.
This page has a good diagram showing the difference between US and EU distribution systems - how the US has many small transformers vs the EU having few large ones, and how US customers get three-wire single phase vs EU three-phase
I suspect this is offset greatly by the differences in infra, where EU uses buried cables instead of US style utility poles.
I remember few years back an insane thunderstorm caused an "equipment failure" in the electrical infrastructure, and it manifested as a blackout. The blackout was somehow local and my mobile phone worked OK (though I could not charge it).
Generally any blackouts have been short, from tens of seconds to half an hour or so. No spectacular blue lights with aliens swarming in from the resulting dimensional rift.
It did raise thoughts of how highly vulnerable a modern society is to loss of electricity.
I mean, what if the lights went out and did not come back? (The Long Dark reference is intentional)
Were an EMP or something take place and fry electrical devices for good from a large ares, things would go bad and fast. The system impact would be massive.
There would be: no computers, no cars, no cell phones, no TV, no fridges or freezers. No digital clocks. No electrical heating. No lights. No deliveries to shops. No subway, no trains. No card payments. And so on. Eventually people would be out and rioting and stealing to feed their starving kids once a week or so had passed and any cupboard storages of canned beans and the like had been exhausted.
I just checked PJM's emergency event list, and it didn't affect the wholesale grid enough to cause any concern.
https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/id4/images/6/6b/ScreenSh...
- overload + faulty breakers (or no breakers...)
- old age insulation failure
- coolant depletion
- overvoltage due to lightning strikes elsewhere
https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2014/12/thieves-f...
http://www.eskom.co.za/AboutElectricity/PubSafety/Pages/Tran...
https://english.mathrubhumi.com/news/kerala/theft-of-oil-fro...
Why don't they add some things to:
(a) make it taste horrid,
(b) make it smell horrendous when burnt?
I imagine when the aliens arrive we’ll be so far behind the technology curve that there’s not much point in trying to defend ourselves.
Be kind rewind...
http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2010/01/20/up...
Even a phenomenon like this. Could we use it for lighting a whole City for less power than streetlamps?
So there's a lot of waste and noisy interference being unloaded in all directions. In fact, it's so wasteful that it's dumping audible noise for miles beyond even the limits of its kinetic heat. Why waste that much energy? It's obviously costly to produce, no?
We don't even have a report on how much of the grid's juice went up in smoke. Certainly more than one hour of a 100 watt lightbulb. Maybe a megawatt hour? Maybe one hundred megawatt hours? An hour's worth of one hundred million lightbulbs? Not impossible.
And then, of course, there's the fact that night time is a good thing. All vertebrates sleep. All plants need a night cycle, for the dark phase of photosynthesis.
Sure, the city is this unnatural human social landscape, but, uh... I think the novelty of a constant high intensity electrical arc's discharge will wear off in about a week or less, for pretty much everybody, and nobody would want to live near it.
High voltage is quite well-researched. I'm sure there are experts who understand exactly what is happening here. We might not know the immediate cause of the explosion yet.
> Even a phenomenon like this. Could we use it for lighting a whole City for less power than streetlamps?
I'm a total layman, but it seems like the large majority of the light generated is wasted lighting up the sky instead of the ground. It's only producing as much groundlight as it is because there happened to be low clouds that night. That's why street lamps have reflectors above them to focus the light downwards. That's not even considering the amount energy wasted as heat.
BTW if anyone is interested in the voltage involved here, my friend works for ConEd and was on the scene. It was a 246kv step down transformer to 27kv. They have a lot of redundancy so it was fixed pretty quickly.