Aurora Astorialis
December 28, 2018 8:34 AM   Subscribe

Last night, for several minutes, the night sky over New York City was illuminated with brilliant electric blue light. The NYPD insists that it wasn't aliens, but you can draw your own conclusions.
posted by showbiz_liz (82 comments total) 16 users marked this as a favorite
 
I hear New Yorkers responded with their usual world-weary aplomb.
posted by supermedusa at 8:37 AM on December 28, 2018 [10 favorites]


*pinching bridge of nose*

It was a damn transformer fire, it was not aliens.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 8:37 AM on December 28, 2018 [12 favorites]


Well, yeah, of course it was, but let the people have their fun!
posted by showbiz_liz at 8:38 AM on December 28, 2018 [6 favorites]


Transformers are from Cybertron, so technically it was aliens.
posted by paper chromatographologist at 8:39 AM on December 28, 2018 [88 favorites]


It was a damn transformer fire, it was not aliens.

well who caused the transformer fire, hmmmmmmm?
posted by supermedusa at 8:40 AM on December 28, 2018 [11 favorites]


also very pretty disaster. my NY friends are blase about it.
posted by supermedusa at 8:40 AM on December 28, 2018 [1 favorite]


Love the title.
posted by 1970s Antihero at 8:40 AM on December 28, 2018 [24 favorites]


It was a damn transformer fire, it was not aliens.

Ok, but the Transformers are aliens, right? I mean, they come from a different planet.
posted by nubs at 8:43 AM on December 28, 2018 [9 favorites]


Here's a BoingBoing piece linking to a Popular Mechanics article from 2010 explaining why transformers explode. (A lot of them blew up after Superstorm Sandy in 2012.) And here's an explainer from the Physics StackExchange about how, with a sufficient surge of power, electricity passing through air turns it blue.
posted by Cash4Lead at 8:44 AM on December 28, 2018 [6 favorites]


The frequency and tenor of messages last night from a friend in Astoria was surprising.

"Is Ghostbusters happening?"
"Where is Bill Pullman?"
"Why is nobody answering? Were you all raptured?"
posted by uncleozzy at 8:44 AM on December 28, 2018 [33 favorites]


Yeah, and they said it was a train derailment and chemical spill when they built that alien landing strip at Devil's Tower. Not buying it now either!
posted by schoolgirl report at 8:47 AM on December 28, 2018 [4 favorites]


Over-the-top gender reveal.
posted by theora55 at 8:48 AM on December 28, 2018 [57 favorites]


Here's a BoingBoing piece linking to a Popular Mechanics article from 2010 explaining why transformers explode. (A lot of them blew up after Superstorm Sandy in 2012.)

I was staying with a friend a few blocks from the one in Lower Manhattan that blew up and took out all the power below 26th Street. We heard "thunder" and saw a flash and then lost power a minute or so later, but we didn't get the incredible blue color that time.
posted by showbiz_liz at 8:49 AM on December 28, 2018 [1 favorite]


While most people have seen a transformer explosion, this one went on for several minutes (presumably due to a cascading series of them) so it is understandable people were a little... startled.
posted by tavella at 8:49 AM on December 28, 2018 [2 favorites]


Best FPP title of 2018! (Are there awards? I nominate!)
posted by M-x shell at 8:50 AM on December 28, 2018 [9 favorites]


and where were will smith and jeff goldblum in our hour of need i ask you
posted by poffin boffin at 8:50 AM on December 28, 2018 [9 favorites]


The Combine really needs to give advance warning before trying to open another portal.
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 8:55 AM on December 28, 2018 [5 favorites]


While most people have seen a transformer explosion

Wait, what!?
posted by ragtag at 8:57 AM on December 28, 2018 [22 favorites]


It's a...regional blown electric.
"What region?"
Upstate New York.
"Well, I'm from Utica and I've never seen a transformer blow up."
Oh, no, not in Utica. It's an Albany explosion.
posted by cortex at 9:00 AM on December 28, 2018 [38 favorites]


most people in nyc at least.
posted by poffin boffin at 9:01 AM on December 28, 2018


...also, if you live in the South long enough (or at least TN), you'll inevitably see someone shoot a transformer, causing it to explode.
posted by aramaic at 9:05 AM on December 28, 2018 [5 favorites]


ragtag: Pretty much anyone who lives near non-buried power lines has seen or at least heard and then seen the aftermath of a pole transformer blowing up? At least, I experience one every few years and I don't think I'm an outlier.
posted by tavella at 9:05 AM on December 28, 2018 [4 favorites]


I was on Twitter when everyone started posting about this. I don't know how much of it was my own personal pessimism and how much of it was growing up with 9/11, but my first thought was "oh fuck!" After 15 minutes without a WaPo alert, I decided it must've been harmless. It was the longest 15 minutes I've experienced in a while.
posted by grandiloquiet at 9:07 AM on December 28, 2018 [8 favorites]


Are they still filling those things with PCBs?
posted by Kirth Gerson at 9:16 AM on December 28, 2018 [2 favorites]


I saw a transformer blow on the fourth of July one year on an internet date in Maine. It was quite startling and knocked out power for the local area, but it was nowhere near that bright and it was over very quickly.
posted by bile and syntax at 9:19 AM on December 28, 2018 [1 favorite]


I felt a great disturbance, as if millions of dollars of copper cried out in terror, then suddenly silenced.
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 9:20 AM on December 28, 2018 [16 favorites]


I live in Queens not far from where everything blew up. Our Christmas lights dimmed momentarily. That was it. I have had more exciting experiences while flossing my teeth.
posted by holborne at 9:20 AM on December 28, 2018 [4 favorites]


honestly I thought NYC Twitter would have fresher takes for when they think they're witnessing the end of the world
posted by prize bull octorok at 9:23 AM on December 28, 2018 [5 favorites]


Happy to be out of town because I would have freaked the fuck out. Obviously I'm not a New Yorker in spirit.
posted by betweenthebars at 9:23 AM on December 28, 2018


All you skeptics will change your tune when, six months from now, Mr. Electro, the Lightning Rod of Justice, swings into action over New York!
posted by SPrintF at 9:25 AM on December 28, 2018 [16 favorites]


Transformers blowing is a really cool thing to see, especially at night. When I was a kid, one blew a couple of streets over from our house and it was incredible. The initial “boom” was startling, but the ensuing noise of electricity arcing and the otherworldly blue light flickering and illuminating the night sky over the dark rooftops of the neighborhood were like a great sci-fi dream to a 10-year-old kid.
posted by Thorzdad at 9:27 AM on December 28, 2018 [10 favorites]


honestly I thought NYC Twitter would have fresher takes for when they think they're witnessing the end of the world

a combo of jaded nihilism and glee over potentially not having to pay off all the xmas credit card debt i think
posted by poffin boffin at 9:28 AM on December 28, 2018 [11 favorites]


I guess I saw a smaller one? in the sky in or near Monroeville, PA many years ago. It was just a brief explosion low in the sky that was the most beautiful shade of blue I had ever seen. It didn't seem that far away, but I didn't hear any noise.
posted by serena15221 at 9:37 AM on December 28, 2018 [2 favorites]


Oh hey, Thor's back
posted by The Whelk at 9:41 AM on December 28, 2018 [13 favorites]


The reporting on this is so shallow.

There's reporting on the incident.
There's reporting on the reaction.
But then it just stops.

Why did this specific transformer explode?
posted by mulligan at 9:41 AM on December 28, 2018 [12 favorites]


because nyc utility infrastructure, whether public or private, is old and poorly maintained due to 10,000 different stupid reasons, all of which basically boil down to money.
posted by poffin boffin at 9:46 AM on December 28, 2018 [4 favorites]


Why did this specific transformer explode?

Transformer explosions often result from an insulation failure (in the case of a transformer, the insulator keeps the transformer cool.) Depending on what type of insulator is used, mechanical stress on the transformer, environmental effects like temperature, ice, and pollution could all cause damage over time, or age could damage it.
posted by 1970s Antihero at 9:47 AM on December 28, 2018 [1 favorite]


Are they still filling those things with PCBs?

PCBs have been banned in the U.S. since 1979. In the 40 years since, transformers have been replaced with non-PCB transformers as needed. But transformers are long life devices so there may be some old ones still around.
posted by JackFlash at 9:49 AM on December 28, 2018


Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. Therefore, anyone sufficiently lacking an understanding of technology will ascribe magical phenomena to otherwise explainable circumstances.

Also, welcome to the spider-verse.
posted by Arson Lupine at 9:53 AM on December 28, 2018 [6 favorites]


ah, so in other words, many transformer explosions are caused by hidden wear that isn't apparent to casual observers. I guess when it comes to transformers, there's more than meets the eye.
posted by prize bull octorok at 9:59 AM on December 28, 2018 [83 favorites]


jaded nihilism

Come to think of it, I've never met an enthusiastic nihilist.
posted by Greg_Ace at 9:59 AM on December 28, 2018 [11 favorites]


>While most people have seen a transformer explosion

>>Wait, what!?


There have been five very popular films, each containing a large number of explosions.
posted by EndsOfInvention at 10:00 AM on December 28, 2018 [10 favorites]


It was a damn transformer fire, it was not aliens.

Also it's not a tumor and it's never lupus.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 10:04 AM on December 28, 2018 [8 favorites]


When I was a kid, lightening struck the transformer in my backyard. There was a chaos of light and sound, and then, in the pitch black, I found myself on the floor. My dad thought our house was collapsing and had pulled my mom and I to the floor and covered us with him. 'Nam reflexes, man. Needless to say, this did not help my fear of thunderstorms.

The lightening never strikes twice thing is a big ol' lie, as the transformer was hit several years later. On the bright side, (you'll see in a second what I did there) we weren't plunged into total darkness as several of our small household appliances helpfully caught fire to light the way. I joke about it because they were the daintiest little fires I'd ever seen, like our VCR was holding a candle. Our cellar, a proper New England cellar with uncut rock walls dug into the hill upon which my house sat and inaccessible from inside, also caught on fire. That was my dad's workshop, and the tools there were not quite dainty, but my parents didn't tell me until way later that there was a fire down there so I don't know how bad it was. My dad took care of it himself, but my dad does stupid things somethings.

The light was green though. A very specific shade of green that I can see so clearly in my head even now but could not even begin to describe to you.
posted by Ruki at 10:10 AM on December 28, 2018 [17 favorites]


I mean its probobly not great that all the infrastructure of the nation's largest city and heart of finance is all falling a part right as weather becomes regularly extreme and damaging but let us have our fun.
posted by The Whelk at 10:19 AM on December 28, 2018 [14 favorites]


"Bumblebee, Noooooooooo!"
posted by ZeusHumms at 10:23 AM on December 28, 2018 [1 favorite]


Greg_Ace: Come to think of it, I've never met an enthusiastic nihilist.

You might find Turgenev's Fathers and Sons interesting.
posted by clawsoon at 10:24 AM on December 28, 2018 [4 favorites]


Or this 1998 interview with Francis Bacon (15 second clip).
posted by ejs at 10:30 AM on December 28, 2018 [1 favorite]


While most people have seen a transformer explosion

I can do one better! When I was living in San Francisco, I called in an underground transformer explosion to PG&E a good 10 minutes before it happened.

It was during the afternoon, and I noticed all my lights went dim and started flickering. I was living in a really old apartment building, so my first thought was an electrical fire in the wall somewhere. So I ran through the building listening for arcing, but couldn't find anything.

Then I went out onto the street and saw the same thing was happening to every building on my side of the block. That's when I went back inside and called PG&E. I still remember how goddamn useless the PG&E operator was. I point blank told them an underground transformer fire was imminent and gave my service address. Which they fucking insisted on verifying against my PG&E account number, since my phone number didn't match any of their records.

I spent a good 5 minutes arguing with them trying to explain that I was not a PG&E customer (my old apartment building didn't have separate metering for each unit, so the landlord was their customer, not the individual tenants). The transformer finally blew while I was still on the phone, and the operator actually heard the explosion over the phone call. So I got a good "I told you so" to some anonymous phone rep, which made me feel a little better, but not really.

So I hung up, because fuck those idiots, and went outside to watch the emergency response. A flying manhole cover ripped the bumper off a parked car, but there were no injuries.

TBH, I don't know what I was really expecting the PG&E operator to do. Probably not shut off power to several blocks of downtown San Francisco in response to a single phone call. But of all possible responses, arguing about my non-existent account number was the most stupid.
posted by ryanrs at 10:33 AM on December 28, 2018 [39 favorites]


Magic is indistinguishable from sufficiently advanced technology. Therefore, anyone lacking a thorough understanding of magic will ascribe technological causes to arcane and mystical phenomena.

Most of you won't be prepared to hear it, but this was obviously the work of elves. City elves.
posted by dephlogisticated at 10:43 AM on December 28, 2018 [4 favorites]




Just echoing what others have said, in my experience transformers exploding is a pretty common occurrence. The one next to my house growing up blew when I was a kid. They're farily notorious causes of momentary dread in Tennessee, what with all the humidity and bizarre weather patterns. (and yes, as mentioned above, bored denizens of the volunteer state shooting at them)
posted by Twain Device at 10:55 AM on December 28, 2018


The one outside my bldg in Chicago blew a few years back, and the workers told us it was due to rats gnawing on the insulation, as they do. They even found the fried rat and showed us. We didn't wonder if it was aliens.
posted by heyho at 11:03 AM on December 28, 2018 [1 favorite]


@Michelle Dean: Sort of depressing to know that the apocalypse will begin with people on twitter posting, “What the fuck was that”
posted by ImproviseOrDie at 11:10 AM on December 28, 2018 [12 favorites]


I saw several green flashes one night a few years back as a tropical storm took out several transformers. I was told what they were, but secretly hoped for aliens.
posted by Pope Guilty at 11:35 AM on December 28, 2018


If an entire block goes up in a ball of green flame, you know Lo Pan is responsible somehow. Somebody get Egg Shen on the line.
posted by fifteen schnitzengruben is my limit at 11:50 AM on December 28, 2018 [16 favorites]


Yes, transformers blow up all the time. To be fair though, said explosions are not typically enough to turn the sky above Queens bright blue such that it can be seen from most of the boroughs and New Jersey.

So I think we can maybe cut New Yorkers some slack for their astonishment at the display they saw... no matter how mundane the explanation ended up being.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 12:16 PM on December 28, 2018 [9 favorites]


Somewhere Spiderman is trying to politely get out of dinner with Aunt May to head down there, because that clearly is some supervillain's origin story beginning.
posted by AzraelBrown at 12:26 PM on December 28, 2018 [6 favorites]


We had one in our alley not now blow up, but one of the lines came loose such that the load was being carried by a green arc from the transformer to the line. It was night and the house served by that transformer looked like there was a fire inside, because the lights through the whole house were flickering together. I asked later, and they had to replace basically every electrical thing in the house..
posted by ArgentCorvid at 12:27 PM on December 28, 2018


Would I have to live in a city where Edison designed the system in order to consider transformer explosions a routine matter?
posted by Segundus at 12:50 PM on December 28, 2018 [1 favorite]


When I was a kid a transformer blew up a few miles from our house. It was summer and I had the window open and I could hear an electrical buzzing noise. I looked up and the sky looked like that scene in 2001. It was pretty awesome.
posted by dirigibleman at 1:01 PM on December 28, 2018 [1 favorite]


Would I have to live in a city where Edison designed the system in order to consider transformer explosions a routine matter?

Well, to be pedantic, Edison designed DC transmission systems which did not use transformers. He had a corporate war with Westinghouse who favored AC transmission systems which did use transformers. The Westinghouse system eventually won because AC transmission over distances at higher voltages which are transformed to low voltages at their point of use was more efficient.
posted by JackFlash at 1:03 PM on December 28, 2018 [8 favorites]


I remember being in SoCal during one of the more major quakes - likely Northridge - and I was helping break down a sound system for a small dance party and remote broadcast for a college radio station.

We didn't feel the quake at all. We just watched the huge bowl of an LA night sky light up green for a good 10-15 minutes as transformers blew all over a several hundred square mile sprawl.

We just kind of shrugged and assumed the world was ending and went about finishing packing.

This sentiment that this was relatively normal and expected kind of sums up the whole LA experience.
posted by loquacious at 2:05 PM on December 28, 2018 [3 favorites]


Rain got into some transformers in the French Quarter while I was working at the cigar shop there, right on Bourbon St. Booms and smoke coming out of the ground, power going out, crowds of drunken tourists screaming and running this way and that. Good times.
posted by Anticipation Of A New Lover's Arrival, The at 2:56 PM on December 28, 2018 [1 favorite]


I've also seen pole transformers blow, both at the end of the street of my childhood home here in Massachusetts and also in the Marigny neighborhood of New Orleans where I was living at the time. Not nearly as dramatic as this, but a nice kaboom and a pretty waterfall of white-hot sparks. Followed by the power going out.
posted by Anticipation Of A New Lover's Arrival, The at 2:59 PM on December 28, 2018


Come to think of it, I've never met an enthusiastic nihilist.

YAY! We're all going to die! Everything is pointless! WHEEE!!
posted by sexyrobot at 3:03 PM on December 28, 2018 [16 favorites]


aka Astoria Borealis, Northern Boulevard Lights
posted by STFUDonnie at 3:58 PM on December 28, 2018 [5 favorites]


Every summer my partner and I play Name That Bang: Transformer, Firework, or Firearm.

I rented a house with the strangest wiring. The two poles of the breaker box were fed from different transformers. Within a month of each other both transformers blew, each time only taking out half of the circuits in the house.
posted by hwyengr at 4:33 PM on December 28, 2018


You guys sure do like your fireworks, I've never seen a transformer explosion in my life. Guess they are being replaced before things get interesting.
posted by hat_eater at 4:41 PM on December 28, 2018 [1 favorite]


Exploding transformers are really super dangerous to be near. For one there's all the vaporizing copper and aluminum, which is where you get the blue-green light from. Then there's all the UV radiation from the arc flash. Then there's the arc flash itself and all the electricity and cascade failure stuff that can happen. Then there's the toxic smoke. And then there's the boiling, pressurized explosion of the transformer cooling oil catching fire or even detonating.

If you're ever near any of this stuff going on you want to de-ass the area ASAP. Dont stare at any flashing arcs, it's exactly like a welding arc but much bigger and is really bad for your eyes. Pay attention to any overhead lines or downed lines and leave the area at right angles to the lines.
posted by loquacious at 5:29 PM on December 28, 2018 [18 favorites]


But if you turn your back to the arc, you can watch it on your phone while taking hella sick selfies.

Just don't get too close because things can always go from bad to worse.
posted by ryanrs at 6:07 PM on December 28, 2018 [4 favorites]


YAY! We're all going to die!

Or as Country Joe said, “Whoopee! We’re all gonna die!”
(And it’s one, two, three, what’re we fighting for...)
posted by TedW at 6:29 PM on December 28, 2018


It was a blast. lol.

But really, anyone who knows me knows I'm around disaster with a camera so it was more of a "no, why in the world would I be in Astoria on purpose?" conversation over and over
posted by blaneyphoto at 7:56 PM on December 28, 2018


A friend noted that in a good chunk of the videos he saw of the incident, the person doing the recording at first started screaming/freaking out, but ultimately ended up running towards the glow to get a better view - if there were real aliens coming, people would rather get better things to post on social media (and get zapped by a death ray, or abducted by a UFO) than run to safety.

That made me feel a lot better about my emergency plan which involved getting drunk and hiding under a table (I happened to be drinking in a bar in Astoria at the time).

Also, this guy would be ready to defend us as well.
posted by Calloused_Foot at 11:31 PM on December 28, 2018 [2 favorites]


Also, this guy would be ready to defend us as well.

I will side with tamahagane against any mere alien ...
posted by oheso at 11:49 PM on December 28, 2018


This reminds me of Tesla's plans for wireless lighting. How much electricity did this use, and why doesn't anyone do it deliberately?
posted by Joe in Australia at 3:54 AM on December 29, 2018




This reminds me of Tesla's plans for wireless lighting. How much electricity did this use, and why doesn't anyone do it deliberately?

Hi.
posted by Huffy Puffy at 8:34 AM on December 29, 2018


I was visiting my parents in not-new-york and my dad, skimming the news, said
– How far is your place from Queens?
– I dunno, it depends.
– Something just blew up in Queens.
– That's ok, something's always blowing up in New York.

I didn't remind my parents about the underground transformer that blew up a few years ago down the street from me. It was two blocks away but the blast broke some windows on the other side of my building and when the manhole cover landed it smashed a few cars and injured an innocent bystander.
posted by moonmilk at 8:43 AM on December 29, 2018


Also, this guy would be ready to defend us as well.

They ain't gittin' the tee-vee.
posted by Greg_Ace at 9:59 AM on December 29, 2018


I don't think any of the reporting does justice to exactly how scary this was. I was walking home from the train and fully the entire half of the sky that I was facing lit up, flickering between a yellowy daylight and very bright blue. For a full six minutes. This was enough time to scare the sh*t out of everyone walking on the sidewalk, we all looked at each other and just walked slowly... I didn't even think to take pictures I just called my wife and talked to her, pretty sure this was some sort of weapon because, well. Why wouldn't I. Sorta walking wondering when the air would become too hot to breathe or people around me would start dropping. Not fun. I wish I could've enjoyed how pretty it was!

Also I don't think it helps that I was reading the last book of the Southern Reach trilogy on the train...

I'm still sorta screwed up from how tense that few minutes were hence scrolling back to see what everyone here had to say, and still looking up accounts. Who knew transformers could freak out like that?! (not me!) It'll be a fun therapy sesh this week.
posted by emirenic at 2:31 PM on December 30, 2018 [6 favorites]


"A friend noted that in a good chunk of the videos he saw of the incident, the person doing the recording at first started screaming/freaking out, but ultimately ended up running towards the glow to get a better view - if there were real aliens coming, people would rather get better things to post on social media (and get zapped by a death ray, or abducted by a UFO) than run to safety."

Umm, if aliens show up I'm running toward them without social media in mind. For one thing, it'd be incredibly stupid for aliens to get here just to do some direct violence at risk to themselves. For another, it's goddamn aliens and I want to see, death rays or not. I'd wonder why you were running away!
posted by GoblinHoney at 1:25 PM on January 3, 2019 [1 favorite]


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