Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

New York Sky Turns Bright Blue After Transformer Explosion

nytimes.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

111–120 of 173 posts

Re: New York Sky Turns Bright Blue After Transformer Explosion

#111

Post by leroy_masochist »

simtel20 wrote: post #72
miiiiiike wrote: post #12

I live about two blocks away. The lights dimmed and one of our breakers flipped. Then it got bad. My phone suddenly lit up, brighter than the night's electric blue sky, as everyone I've ever known called and texted to ask about what was going on. Nothing interesting. Astoria is a pretty great neighborhood tho. We have a 24-hour fruit market next to another 24-hour fruit market.

Was this at the Big Alice plant off of Vernon boulevard? I spent most of my life living across the river from there and it was such a quiet constant presence.

Not sure about the Big Alice nickname...this was at the ConEd substation that connects into the Astoria plant with the iconic four smokestacks that is across from Randalls Island.

Re: New York Sky Turns Bright Blue After Transformer Explosion

#112

Post by msisk6 »

JoeAltmaier wrote: post #107

Driving home in the country when I was a kid, the sky lit up like daytime. Dad drove toward it - it was a power substation. He got out and asked a lineman nearby what was up, reported back to us "A raccoon got stuck across a transformer". Apparently it became the equivalent of a carbon arc searchlight, lasted for quite a while by my recollection.

Several years ago at work we lost one of our utility feeds. Turns out a snake got up on the pole and shorted across two phases. Texas.

Re: New York Sky Turns Bright Blue After Transformer Explosion

#114

Post by gammateam »

mrfusion wrote: post #79
opless wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Though it makes sense if you're watching it on your phone maximised in its natural orientation.

Here’s a PSA for you: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Bt9zSfinwFA

Looks more like a user experience problem than the content creator's problem

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

Re: New York Sky Turns Bright Blue After Transformer Explosion

#115

Post by [deleted] »

snidane wrote: post #64

Living in Astoria, NY and this happened a mile away from me. 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 li…

[deleted]

Re: New York Sky Turns Bright Blue After Transformer Explosion

#116

Post by Casseres »

rurp wrote: post #105
SideburnsOfDoom wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> meteor strike safety best practices Which are similar (for the first minute anyway) for nuclear strike best practices. You would hope that there is still some knowledge of these. The probability of nuclear strike is low at any given time, but at the moment that you experience a unexpected extremely bright light in the sky it's higher.

If nukes are going off in a major US city it probably doesn't matter much where a person is standing.

You don't have to be very far from the epicenter to survive a nuclear blast.

Re: New York Sky Turns Bright Blue After Transformer Explosion

#117

Post by ghouse »

Transformer "explosions" don't last very long. Transformer fires are a different color. [0] As others have noted, the color suggests arcing. Arcing has a number of different causes, but should be brief -- system protection in the form of circuit breakers should interrupt the flow of power immediately ending the arc.

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.

[0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YZipeaAkuC0

Re: New York Sky Turns Bright Blue After Transformer Explosion

#118

Post by Faaak »

hevi_jos wrote: post #52
DaOne256 wrote: post #27

I have never seen a transformator explosion in Germany or Europe. What is different in the american power grid?

US power distribution is way more distributed than in Europe, in which everything is planned and centralized. 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…

> In Europe they have this big monsters that cost several million dollars and require a train to move.

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.

Re: New York Sky Turns Bright Blue After Transformer Explosion

#119

Post by jaredwiener »

kolinko wrote: post #92

If you see bright light, duck and cover. If you go to the window, and it was some kind of a huge explosion, once the shockwave reaches, the windows will shatter and you will get seriously injuired.

I was probably two miles or so away in Manhattan -- there was no noise, no hit to the electricity, nothing. I was watching TV and then saw an otherworldly color sky out he window.

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.

Re: New York Sky Turns Bright Blue After Transformer Explosion

#120

Post by bayouborne »

SideburnsOfDoom wrote: post #69
snidane wrote: post #64

Living in Astoria, NY and this happened a mile away from me. 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 li…

> In the end I rushed to the rooftop, scared as f 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 shar…

I thought your comment was going to be about UV concerns..
Post reply on HN