The Astoria Borealis was an industrial accident that occurred at a Con Edison substation in Astoria, Queens, New York City, on December 27, 2018. During the incident, a 138,000 volt coupling capacitor potential device failed, resulting in an arc flash, which in turn burned aluminum, lighting up the sky with a blue-green spectacle visible for miles around and as far as New Jersey. It received the humorous name "Astoria Borealis" due to its resemblance to the northern lights. The event was covered extensively on social media, [1] and LaGuardia Airport temporarily lost power, but there were neither deaths nor injuries. [2] [3] Such was the magnitude of the bizarre illumination that extraterrestrial visitation was a common supposition. [4] [5]
On the night of December 27, 2018, an electrical fault in voltage-monitoring equipment triggered a fire in the Astoria East substation on 20th Avenue and 32nd Street in Queens. [5] [6] While only part of a single section within the substation, it caused an intense blue light that could be seen for miles and lit up the night sky bright enough to resemble daytime—clearly visible across other boroughs and as far as New Jersey. The blue color was caused by refraction off the cloud cover, despite the white color of the explosion itself. [5] [7] LaGuardia Airport, which suffered an outage due to the accident, was forced to temporarily close. [5] Power was also knocked out at Rikers Island, and some subway lines were disrupted. [7] It was dubbed "Astoria Borealis" by residents and the news media. [5]
While the substation was equipped with systems that should have stopped the accident immediately, it took four minutes to cut the flow of electricity. Due to the "apocalyptic" appearance of the aerial lights, some believed they were caused by an alien invasion or nuclear war. [6]
On January 8, New York City Councilmember Costa Constantinides used the incident as an example of why New York should no longer rely on fossil fuels when touting a new bill studying the closure of the city's gas-fired power plants. [8] On February 11, 2019, the City Council held a hearing on the causes of the accident. Constantinides remarked that there were both air quality and safety concerns and that he wanted "hard answers." [6]
The East River is a saltwater tidal estuary or strait in New York City. The waterway, which is actually not a river despite its name, connects Upper New York Bay on its south end to Long Island Sound on its north end. It separates Long Island, with the boroughs of Brooklyn and Queens, from Manhattan Island, and from the Bronx on the North American mainland.
Queens is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Queens County, in the U.S. state of New York. Located on Long Island, it is the largest of the five New York City boroughs by area. It is bordered by the borough of Brooklyn at the western tip of Long Island and by Nassau County to its east. Queens shares water borders with the boroughs of Manhattan, the Bronx, and Staten Island, as well as with New Jersey.
An aurora , also commonly known as the northern lights or southern lights, is a natural light display in Earth's sky, predominantly seen in high-latitude regions. Auroras display dynamic patterns of brilliant lights that appear as curtains, rays, spirals, or dynamic flickers covering the entire sky.
Astoria is a neighborhood in the western portion of the New York City borough of Queens. Astoria is bounded by the East River and is adjacent to four other Queens neighborhoods: Long Island City to the southwest, Sunnyside to the southeast, and Woodside and East Elmhurst to the east. As of 2019, Astoria has an estimated population of 95,446.
A flashtube (flashlamp) is an electric arc lamp designed to produce extremely intense, incoherent, full-spectrum white light for a very short time. A flashtube is a glass tube with an electrode at each end and is filled with a gas that, when triggered, ionizes and conducts a high-voltage pulse to make light. Flashtubes are used most in photography; they also are used in science, medicine, industry, and entertainment.
The New York City blackout of 1977 was an electricity blackout that affected most of New York City on July 13–14, 1977. The only unaffected neighborhoods in the city were in southern Queens, which were part of the Long Island Lighting Company system, as well as the Pratt Institute campus in Brooklyn, and a few other large apartment and commercial complexes that operated their own power generators.
Consolidated Edison, Inc., commonly known as Con Edison or ConEd, is one of the largest investor-owned energy companies in the United States, with approximately $12 billion in annual revenues as of 2017, and over $62 billion in assets. The company provides a wide range of energy-related products and services to its customers through its subsidiaries:
The New York Connecting Railroad or NYCR is a rail line in the borough of Queens in New York City. It links New York City and Long Island by rail directly to the North American mainland. Amtrak, CSX, Canadian Pacific Kansas City, Providence and Worcester Railroad and New York and Atlantic Railway (NYAR) currently use the line. It runs from the Hell Gate Bridge over the East River to Fresh Pond Junction yard in Glendale in Queens. It was completed in 1917. Amtrak uses the northernmost section of the line from Sunnyside Junction in the Woodside section of Queens to the Hell Gate Bridge into the Bronx from which it follows the line north to Boston.
The BMT Astoria Line is a rapid transit line in the B Division of the New York City Subway, serving the Queens neighborhood of Astoria. It runs south from Ditmars Boulevard in Astoria to 39th Avenue in Long Island City above 31st Street. It then turns west and serves Queensboro Plaza over Queens Plaza.
East Elmhurst is a residential neighborhood in the northwest section of the New York City borough of Queens. It is bounded to the south by Jackson Heights and Corona, to the north and east by Bowery Bay, and to the west by Woodside and Ditmars Steinway. The area also includes LaGuardia Airport, located on the shore of Flushing Bay, LaGuardia Landing Lights Fields, and Astoria Heights.
The Astoria–Ditmars Boulevard station, is the northern terminal station on the BMT Astoria Line of the New York City Subway. Located above 31st Street between 23rd Avenue and Ditmars Boulevard in Astoria, Queens, it is served by the N train at all times and the W train on weekdays.
Triboro Coach Corporation was a bus company in New York City, United States, operating local service in Queens and express routes to Manhattan until February 20, 2006, when MTA Bus took over all of its bus operations and services.
An arc flash is the light and heat produced as part of an arc fault, a type of electrical explosion or discharge that results from a connection through air to ground or another voltage phase in an electrical system.
An earthquake light also known as earthquake lightning or earthquake flash is a luminous optical phenomenon that appears in the sky at or near areas of tectonic stress, seismic activity, or volcanic eruptions. There is no broad consensus as to the causes of the phenomenon involved. The phenomenon differs from disruptions to electrical grids – such as arcing power lines – which can produce bright flashes as a result of ground shaking or hazardous weather conditions.
The 2006 Queens blackout was a series of power outages that affected the northwest section of the New York City borough Queens in July 2006. The blackout primarily affected the neighborhoods of Astoria, Long Island City, Sunnyside, and Woodside. The outages affected 174,000 people, caused business losses of tens of millions of dollars, caused airport and transit delays and cancellations, and caused unsavory living conditions due to a concurrent heat wave.
Ravenswood Generating Station is a 2,480 megawatt power plant in Long Island City in Queens, New York City, New York. It is owned and operated by LS Power/Helix Energy Solutions Group. The plant is fueled primarily by fuel oil and natural gas which heats the boilers.
Costa Constantinides is an American politician and attorney who served as a member of the New York City Council from the 22nd district. The district includes Astoria, East Elmhurst, part of Long Island City, Rikers Island and part of Woodside in Queens.
The Q69 and Q100 Limited bus routes constitute a public transit line in western Queens, New York City. Beginning at Queens Plaza in Long Island City, the routes run primarily along 21st Street through the neighborhoods of Long Island City and Astoria. The Q69 makes all local stops, while the Q100 makes four limited stops along the shared corridor between Queens Plaza and Ditmars Boulevard. At Ditmars Boulevard, the Q69 turns east towards Jackson Heights and East Elmhurst near LaGuardia Airport. The Q100, meanwhile, continues north of Queens across Bowery Bay to the city jail complex on Rikers Island in the Bronx, providing the only public transit service to the island.
Tiffany Cabán is an American attorney, politician, and political organizer who has served as a member of the New York City Council for the 22nd District since the 2021 New York City Council election. She won the Democratic primary for the seat after the incumbent, Democrat Costa Constantinides, retired.
The West Side of Manhattan in New York City experienced a power failure on July 13, 2019, at approximately 7 p.m. EDT. Con Edison is the energy utility serving the area, and they reported that approximately 73,000 customers were without power. Power was fully restored by midnight. The power failure occurred on the 42nd anniversary of the New York City blackout of 1977, which left nine million customers without power.
