weather blackout

[tali122]

some 20 years whilst at school a metreological blackout occured across the county (not a power failiure blackout)- what causes them and how often do they occur?

[gen2]

If I understand your question correctly, I think you must have been at school in North America. I presume the blackouts were associated with aurora events (Northern Lights). If that is so, then here is the explanation:

The dynamo effect generates an electric current when a conductor is moved through a magnetic field. The effect is also produced when a magnetic field moves past a stationary conductor. During an aurora display, the magnetic field is constantly changing and moving. The power distribution lines strung across the country are the conductors. Huge currents are induced in these lines which then cause the circuits to trip and deprive you of your usual power supply.

[tali122]

no this was in the midlands -where the sky simply blacked out in the afternoon - in other words it went from daylight to nightime in a couple of seconds (as i mentioned earlier not a power supply problem -as how can power supply affect the state of the sky?)

[gazzawazza]

Tali122, I know exactly what you're on about!!! I can remember this happening when I was in the infants in about 1968 when I was 5 or 6!

We were in the classroom and the teacher was talking to us about something when suddenly, over a period of about 20 seconds or less, the sky (and everything else outside) went absolutely black as night! The teacher stopped talking as everyone in the class looked out of the windows. At this point teach said, "everybody stay in your seats, I won't be a minute" and ran out of the classroom!

She must have thought it was the end of the world (we kids had absolutely no idea what was going on) and just looked on in amazement.

After a minute or so, teach returned and a few minutes later everything went back to normal. It definitely wasn't an eclipse, and many times since then I've tried to find out more info on this incident, to no avail. A few years ago, I mentioned this to an older colleague at work, and he said he could remember it clearly. It was, (he said), a local(ish) phenomenon confined to the Teesside area, and that the "Evening Gazette" had devoted the front page to the event, stating that many shoppers in the town centre "got down on their knees and prayed!"

[tali122]

yes gazzawazza it seemed very apolyptic and very frightening but our teacher remained reassuringly calm during the event , the midlands blackout occured sometime definantely in 1982-83 and the midlands paper also covered the story, but like you i also seem to have come to a dead end with this strange event.