Winnipesaukee Forum - Strange electrical disturbance

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Strange electrical disturbance

Shortly after 10 pm last night (Friday, 7/26) the following strange events happened at our place on Moultonboro Neck, Boathouse Road:

Blue-white flash outdoors. No thunder.
PC behaved strangely, then shut down. Operates normally when restarted.
Cable TV went off. Operates normally when restarted.
Telephone "dinged" but didn't ring.
Lights flickered, but power wasn't off long enough to require clocks to be reset.
Battery operated smoke alarms emitted a brief squeal.
Lights in the garage door openers went on, but doors didn't open.

Our next door neighbor had an identical experience.

NH Electric Coop website shows no power outage at that time.

Did anyone else experience the same thing? Any ideas about the cause? (My neighbor thinks it was poltergeists)

Hoosier

Strong electric field but not strong enough to result in cloud to earth lightning. Similar situation to St. Elmo's fire.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Elmo%27s_fire
It can induce currents in wiring and ding the phone or give the PC a fit.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hoosier (Post 208947)

Shortly after 10 pm last night (Friday, 7/26) the following strange events happened at our place on Moultonboro Neck, Boathouse Road: Did anyone else experience the same thing? Any ideas about the cause? (My neighbor thinks it was poltergeists)

Hoosier

Happened here too (down M'boro neck). TV rebooted several times, yet the night lights stayed on. It lasted 10-15 seconds then all was back to normal.

A car hit a pole on the neck last night around 10pm and caused some electrical problems. I didn't see any aliens from planet loontoon though :laugh:

Pretty creepy, if you ask me!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hoosier (Post 208947)

I live on thr Meredith/Ctr Harbor line and our lights all flickered for about 10 seconds

Welcome to the Twilight Zone......

At around that time the house lights on the lower Neck and Long Island went dark. Power came back on a little after 11 pm. I figured either someone went into a pole or a tree branch finally gave way somewhere and took out a wire up on the neck.

Thanks to that power outage, (really just flickering) I discovered that an outlet in my living room was not working. After investigating, my husband found that the outlet had fried. House is only ten years old. Good things come in very strange ways! ;)

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hoosier (Post 208947)

http://i44.tinypic.com/1499wms.gif Hoosier, I just noticed that you are fairly new to posting on the forum and glad you have joined us. Have fun and enjoy the Winni Forum while making many new friends.

May have been a transformer flash...:)

http://i54.tinypic.com/2e56yqf.gif