Quote:
Originally Posted by Blue Thunder
I'm really not picking on you CLA,  but I'd like to offer a clarification to a common misconception. Transformers rarely explode. What you are seeing in a blue flash that lights up the sky at night during a snowstorm is the simultaneous connection or grounding together of 2 or 3 "phases" of primary power lines, usually caused by a tree or branch coming in contact with them. The "short circuit", if you will, can quite often be mistaken for an explosion due to the high voltage fault. The flash of light generated by this action is then magnified/transmitted through the moisture laden snow that is falling giving it a blue hue due to the water content.
The blue flashes generally happen in "threes". Most high voltage three phase primary power lines are connected to what is called a "re-closer", which means that the system will try automatically to re-energize itself should the fault have cleared itself in some way.(branches often burn off due to the high current). This happens three times until the re-closer "locks out" at which time, it takes a manual reset by a lineman from the power company.
As I type this, it occurs to me that I've said this before in a thread from previous years and for that I apologize.
Blue Thunder |
I found that very useful to know! I had always thought there was some sort of explosion. Sounds more like it's just an "explosion of electricity" from a shorting system -- in any case it's not something I want to be near when it happens!
You did explain some of this in a previous thread but more in relation to the system attempting twice to re-close on its own, in case the branch (or whatever) burns or falls off the wires. We were discussing why this system makes it so necessary to have a battery backup on computer systems nowadays because the on-off-on-off will screw up any computer that is set to automatically restart.
Hilltopper, that was useful stuff to know - sounds like the the farther away from the Ossipees you get, the more snow there was. That's it for winter, for a few days. I don't think that's it, in the long term. Models are showing a possible snowstorm at the end of the weekend and possible cold outbreak across the northern US in its wake.