Was this an EMP?

nathan104 · #1 03/20/12, 12:17 PM

We had crazy storms come through last night. LOTS of lightning and thunder. Spoke with good friends of ours this morning and in the middle of the night last night there their transformer blew, alarm clocks started going off, and everything in the house with batteries in it, even toys turned on and started going off. Cell phones turned off and on. Their directv receivers which were on surge protectors are fried, and several off the battery powered items do not work anymore even with new batteries. Their kids are freaked out by it thinking it was ghosts or something. Did the transformer blowing send out an EMP or something shich would do all that?

Alice In TX/MO · #2 03/20/12, 12:20 PM

Lightening strike. Power surged through house. Hope they have good insurance.

Tracy Rimmer · #3 03/20/12, 12:20 PM

Sounds like their transformer got hit by lightning. I think, if lightning hits close enough, it can "charge" things -- explaining why the battery-operated stuff turned on -- and fry pretty much anything that uses electrical current to operate, just because it pushes too much charge through it to handle, and the circuitry goes.

Not sure if this is what is considered an EMP, or not, but I know it happens.

mnn2501 · #4 03/20/12, 12:23 PM

With EMP things would stop working, this was a lighting strike/surge

texican · #5 03/20/12, 02:24 PM

Believe me, if we have an EMP, it won't be localized, but pretty much a good part of the country... if weaponized... if natural, could be worldwide. You 'would know it', if you knew what an EMP does... pretty much every piece of modern electronics (or anything that uses electronics... transistors, resistors, printed circuit boards, etc.) will be dead. Basically after an EMP, the country would be reverted instantly back into an 1850's era paradigm.

If you go to the SEP subforum, you can find plenty of info on EMP's.... or read a fictionalized account of an EMP and it's effects upon civilization, in "One Second After"...

jeremynj · #6 03/20/12, 02:28 PM

A worldwide EMP....?

Danaus29 · #7 03/20/12, 02:44 PM

If the surge suppressor was rated to handle lightning the owners need to contact the manufacturer. Our UPS offers a replacement guarantee for anything attached to it that is damaged by lightning. When our house was hit the computer was totally unharmed while everything else on that end that was plugged in got fried.
We didn't have a total electrical surge, only the end closest to the strike was affected. None of our battery operated items were affected.

ErinP · #8 03/20/12, 02:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jeremynj

A worldwide EMP....?

That's what I was thinking... wouldn't a natural EMP (I assume we're talking solar radiation or something) only affect the side of the globe that's facing it?

Alice In TX/MO · #9 03/20/12, 03:03 PM

If you are interested in the potential outcome of multiple upper atmosphere EMPs, read this book:
Amazon.com: One Second After (9780765317582): William R. Forstchen, Newt Gingrich: Books

unregistered41671 · #10 03/20/12, 03:08 PM

Their insurance may be able to help recover any damages.

StL.Ed · #11 03/20/12, 04:41 PM

If the toys were battery powered (not connected to electric lines) I wouldn't call it a power surge.

Also, from the Wikipedia entry for Electromagnetic pulses:
"The E2 component of the pulse has many similarities to the electromagnetic pulses produced by lightning, although the electromagnetic pulse induced by a nearby lightning strike may be considerably larger than the E2 component of a nuclear EMP."

Electromagnetic pulse - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

eta: standard wiki disclaimer applies..

Ozarks Tom · #12 03/20/12, 05:00 PM

To answer the question "what is an EMP?", an EMP is caused by a nuclear explosion several hundred miles above the earth. No noise, no destruction, just an Electro Magnetic Pulse. This pulse is absorbed by electric wiring, transmission lines, transformers, anything electronic (circuit boards). The pulse overloads these circuits, essentially frying them. Those items not containing delicate circuitry, mostly things that don't have micro electronics, would survive but without electricity coming to them (blown transformers) would be usesless. Older cars/trucks, pre 1980, would probably still function.

The effects of an EMP would be localized to a region line of sight from the explosion. The higher the elevation of the explosion, with accomanying increase in explosive power, the larger the area effected. In other words, in a radius of the horizon from the point of the explosion.

A CME, or Coronal Mass Ejection, is a phenomenon of sunspots sending a burst of solar wind (plasma, magnetic waves) causing much the same damage to electronics and the power grid. These bursts vary in intensity (we just went through a few minor ones), but the largest recorded, in 1859, fried telegraph lines. When one that size happens again, with our current technologies, we're in for bigger problems than an EMP.

Have a great day!

Danaus29 · #13 03/20/12, 06:55 PM

Oh great, thanks for something else to keep me up at night.

texican · #14 03/20/12, 10:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jeremynj

A worldwide EMP....?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ozarks Tom

To answer the question "what is an EMP?", an EMP is caused by a nuclear explosion several hundred miles above the earth. No noise, no destruction, just an Electro Magnetic Pulse. This pulse is absorbed by electric wiring, transmission lines, transformers, anything electronic (circuit boards). The pulse overloads these circuits, essentially frying them. Those items not containing delicate circuitry, mostly things that don't have micro electronics, would survive but without electricity coming to them (blown transformers) would be usesless. Older cars/trucks, pre 1980, would probably still function.

The effects of an EMP would be localized to a region line of sight from the explosion. The higher the elevation of the explosion, with accomanying increase in explosive power, the larger the area effected. In other words, in a radius of the horizon from the point of the explosion.

A CME, or Coronal Mass Ejection, is a phenomenon of sunspots sending a burst of solar wind (plasma, magnetic waves) causing much the same damage to electronics and the power grid. These bursts vary in intensity (we just went through a few minor ones), but the largest recorded, in 1859, fried telegraph lines. When one that size happens again, with our current technologies, we're in for bigger problems than an EMP.

Have a great day!

There you go....
A 'Carrington Event' (the 1859 CME) would be catastrophic, in that most people are alive because of technology and cheap petroleum... do away with either, and we're back to the pre-industrial revolution days, and populations. Think for a bit what would happen if there was no more fuel... without diesel, people are starving within three days (unless your prepped)... everything comes to a screeching halt...

Alice In TX/MO · #15 03/21/12, 02:33 AM

How to be semi-prepared:
onesecondafter.com - Preparing for EMP

foxtrapper · #16 03/21/12, 05:02 AM

Sounds like a naturally induced EMP to me.

Contrary to many peoples thinking, EMP can be small and don't have to destroy half the world.

A very handy small EMP is the eraser of video tapes and cds. A wee little EMP.

NoClue · #17 03/21/12, 06:43 AM

if things are turning 'on' it wasn't an EMP.

Close proximity lightning strikes can do weird things to electronics, a combination of the large static discharge, and inductive pickup of the voltage spike. The effects are really very different though from an EMP, which destroys the insulation layer in semi-condctors, rendering them tiny, useless lumps of doped silicon

foxtrapper · #18 03/21/12, 07:41 AM

There's no reason an EMP cannot turn things on.

EMP's do not destroy insulation. What they do is induce a large voltage spike, which in turn burns through insulation.

NoClue · #19 03/21/12, 08:31 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by foxtrapper

There's no reason an EMP cannot turn things on.

EMP's do not destroy insulation. What they do is induce a large voltage spike, which in turn burns through insulation.

Without the inuslation layer, semi-conductors don't work - thus they don't turn on.

I'm an electrical engineer and I've been working in the communications field for nearly 30 years, 13 of which were in the military. I've dealt with many lightning strikes, I've dealt with 40-foot arcs, and I've had a fair amount of training on EMP.

Lightning is a giant, but localized, electrostatic discharge event. It is similar to, although on a very minor scale compared to the E1 event of an EMP

ErinP · #20 03/21/12, 09:00 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by texican

There you go....
A 'Carrington Event' (the 1859 CME) would be catastrophic,

But probably not worldwide...

Something to keep tucked in the back of a "well-prepared" mind is that we live in an age of global connection.
If an entire nation, or group of nations, were devastated by something like this, it's highly unlikely they would be just ignored and forgotten by the rest of the world (or be allowed to be taken over by the commies/ragheads/evil-doer-of-your-choice)

Beyond a doubt, something like that would be devastating. And might even cause mass-chaos to the society(s) directly affected, but it's unlikely it would be something that couldn't be rebuilt.