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New York Sky Turns Bright Blue After Transformer Explosion

nytimes.com

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Re: New York Sky Turns Bright Blue After Transformer Explosion

#131

Post by devy »

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, and noticed this was just a transformer on fire at nearby power plant. Took a video, waited it out and went back.

Care to share the video you took? :)

Re: New York Sky Turns Bright Blue After Transformer Explosion

#132

Post by Stratoscope »

groestl wrote: post #123
gammateam wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Funny you should say that mobile users on Reddit have no UX problem with vertical videos. Here is how the above link looks like on my mobile device. Original link (to classic reddit UI), mobile version horizontal, mobile version portrait, respectively: https://imgur.com/a/JU4v3rn

The video has a full screen button which can be seen in your screenshots. Tap it and the video fills the screen in portrait mode on both the old reddit and the new mobile reddit, at least on my Android device.

Re: New York Sky Turns Bright Blue After Transformer Explosion

#133

Post by joezydeco »

Fezzik wrote: post #3

I wonder how often these occur. When I was in my early 20s a buddy and I were about 18 hours in to a drive to Buena Vista, CO from Portland, OR, when a transformer exploded somewhere near us in a huge canyon. We thought it was noiseless nucleur explosion - the light was searingly bright and seemed to engulf everything. I just happened to call another friend (from a pay phone!) who had experienced the same thing. Even…

I live in an older subdivision that has 18kW transformers on poles every hundred yards or so. We get a blowout once or twice a year during a storm. The arcs are smaller but oh man that 60Hz hum. It’s incredibly loud. Can’t imagine how loud that NYC arc was.

Re: New York Sky Turns Bright Blue After Transformer Explosion

#134

Post by ars »

C1sc0cat wrote: post #66
Cthulhu_ wrote: post #22

How dangerous is that light? I know welding arcs contain a lot of dangerous UV light for example. It should be fine indirectly (clouds would let the UV pass or absorb it), but directly being exposed to it seems dangerous.

A lot of transformers have some very nasty chemicals in them id be worried about that as well.

To be specific, transformers older than around 40 years old had Polychlorinated biphenyl in them.

Re: New York Sky Turns Bright Blue After Transformer Explosion

#135

Post by jp555 »

BoiledCabbage wrote: post #126
jp555 wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My high school physics says that’s BS, but EMP scare tactics does make for a great info-war weapon. It’s quite the boogeyman if you don’t have much science background. Stuxnet like attacks are way way more plausible and likely.

> if you don’t have much science background 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.

Sources that invalidate foundational theory? It’s like claims that cell radios cause molecular damage in humans; that probably requires proving Enstien’s Nobel prize winning work on the photoelectric effect is wrong.

Re: New York Sky Turns Bright Blue After Transformer Explosion

#136

Post by thesz »

ghouse wrote: post #117

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.…

Electric arc welding uses, well, arc. And powerful one, I have to add.

So you can have long lasting big arc that does not draw enough energy to trigger circuit breakers.

Re: New York Sky Turns Bright Blue After Transformer Explosion

#137

Post by topynate »

jp555 wrote: post #100
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…

EMP weapons are not a real thing. 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?

The film Threads (which strived for accuracy) had a full scale nuclear attack on the U.K. preceded by a high altitude nuclear detonation over the North Sea, in order to knock out as many systems as possible with an EMP. And from the Starfish Prime test, we know that such events also create an unusual coloured light display.

Re: New York Sky Turns Bright Blue After Transformer Explosion

#138

Post by mirimir »

Casseres wrote: post #116
rurp wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Sure, but would you want to?

Edit: That is, a slow death from radiation poisoning might not be so much fun.

Re: New York Sky Turns Bright Blue After Transformer Explosion

#139

Post by stickfigure »

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…

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.

Also, the lights my blind you. Then the carnivorous plants come.

Re: New York Sky Turns Bright Blue After Transformer Explosion

#140

Post by 4thaccount »

jp555 wrote: post #100
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…

EMP weapons are not a real thing. 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?

https://www.resilientsocieties.org/research.html

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.

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