Blue and Red flashes in my neighborhood.

I live in the southern part of Vancouver, British Columbia, and recently we had a freak snowstorm. Snow over here is very rare, and especially in the quantity that we got: well over two feet in a day. However, that's not the weridest thing.

when the snowflal started two days ago, at around 11:30 pacific time, there was a blinding blue flash that erupted in the sky, and all of the power knocked out for the night. Then another one happened. My first thought was that these were just flashes that come off the power cables, but they are not.

The same thing happened yesterday night while i was driving outside. There was a blinding RED flash in the sky, almsost like lightning but without the deafening thunder. The block i was on lost all power. I got home, and to my surprise i had power. These flashes continued irregularly through the night, two or three at a time, and every time they hit the lights flickered. They happened once every few hours.

It seems that they might be somehow connected to the snow
Overview: blue or sometimes red momentary flashes in the sky, bright enough to light everything at night, including the overcast sky itself, lasting a fraction of a second. Started when the snow began falling. Multiple witnesses (mostly neighbors and friends within a 5 mile radius)

Does anyone have an idea what these might be?
And has anyone else seen anything like this?

[edit on 11.27.06 by ProveIt]

[edit on 11.27.06 by ProveIt]

Yea those would be transformers exploding. The same thing happened when I lived in the mountains of Colorado durring hevy snowfall.

More than likely it's simply conductors swinging together when the snow unloads and not transformers blowing up.

Once the snow loading on power line conductors gets heavy enough, it can no longer retain it's hold on the conductor and breaks away.
Which . . . shakes the length of that particular conductor and that takes most of the snow and ice off that conductor.

The vibration from the single conductor unloading will go into adjacent conductors since they're also on the same poles/towers.
Those conductors also unload snow and many times the swinging conductors will contact each other creating a phase to phase short circuit.

Generally, lines that trip - circuit breakers open - have an automatic test feature that closes the circuit breaker/breakers in an effort to restore load.

If the test fails it's because the phase to phase short circuit may have created enough current flow to burn down one of the conductors.
If you have a conductor down when the auto test feature operates, you now have a phase to ground short circuit and the line will be off until repairs are completed.

If you're outside on such a night you may see several instances of snow unloading just over your nearby horizon and the resultant arcs will light up the night sky.

All in all, it looks very much like seeing a welder using an arc welder or similar and seeing the blue arc light up the wall or sides of the shop behind him.
You may not see the welding arc proper, but you will see the light from the arc reflected off other surfaces.

Since you don't have much snow in your area the lines etc. are probably not up to resisting snow loading as much as they would be in snow country.

Keep in mind that it's entirely possible the line can be down on the ground and still be energized.
That can be due to many factors, but the main one is conductivity of the surface the line is lying on.

Simple life saving rule is, stay away from downed conductors and call the power company.
Some conductors when seen close up don't look big enough - physically speaking -to carry sufficient current to supply a neighborhood or even a small town.
Don't let the appearance of a small diameter conductor fool you.
With enough voltage, you can push a lot of current through a relatively small conductor....


(Edited for clarity.)

[edit on 27-11-2006 by Desert Dawg]

i think i know the answer cuzz of global warming the light reacts with the snow in the sky or it could lighting balls having a reaction with the snow its lightiing but without the sound just a ball which is lighting (which is allaso very rare)

Red and Blue flashes. Hmm. Considered it to be high-beam emergency police lights? Could have have been a rescue helicoptor. Could have been anything part of the emergency dispatch of firehydrants to all-terrain vehicles. Last winter It was dead foggy and extremily cold (-38 celcius) and I saw very bright orange flashing lights. There was no sound. Until it finally came out of no where across the street, it was an emergency city fog plower or w.e.

7A


[edit on 27-11-2006 by 7Ayreon]

Sounds almost like the sprite/mega lightning sort of thing, they can be red or blue I think, but i don't think they are so bright as that. other than that the explanations given so far sound quite good. Also consider earth lights as they could also be a possible explanation. They are believed to be in part caused by tectonic strain, and don't forget that Vancouver is on a relatively quiet part of the Ring of Fire.