Weather - David Mathre Photography

Friday (23-August-2019) — New Jersey

Backyard Summertime Nature in New Jersey.

Daily Walkabout, today with a Fuji X-T3 camera and 200 mm f/2 lens. It was cloudy with light rain. Also 20 degrees cooler than yesterday. The Fuji X-T3 camera is supposed to be weather resistant. [I did have a Fuji X-T1 camera fail six months after visiting Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe, and was told that the camera was not repairable due to water damage to the electronic circuits.] No butterflies or hummingbird moths out since it was raining, so today is all Sunflowers.

Click on the above image to access the individual images in the slideshow.

Daily Electric Energy Used (43.0 kWh) from Sense and Daily Solar Electric Energy Produced (21.2 kWh) from SolSystems and Locus Energy. Cooler outside temperatures reduced the need for cooling, but much less sunlight reduced the solar energy generated, for a net deficit of 21.8 kWh. Cooler weather expected tomorrow!

One note — the WaterFurnace Symphony software indicated the system used 4 kWh, however the Sense Energy monitor indicated that the geothermal heat pump used 7 kWh. I tend to believe the Sense numbers since they more closely the energy being recorded at the external power company (PSE&G) meters. I’ve asked the WaterFurnace folks in the past about the discrepancy, but they didn’t have a good answer. The Sense folks told me they thought that the WaterFurnace/Symphony system was only measuring one phase of the energy even though the system is powered by the 220V circuit (using two phases). I wish an electrical engineer that understands this better would correct me here.

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Three-Years Ago (17-August-2016) — New Jersey

Backyard Summertime Night Sky Over New Jersey.

Night Time Thunderstorm. Two minute time-lapse video. Moon, Clouds, Lightning. Approximately 3000 Images taken between midnight and 4 AM from my backdoor using a Nikon D810A camera and 24 mm f/3.5 PC-E lens (ISO 800, 24 mm, f/4, 4 sec). At one point I had to move the camera away from the door during a heavy downpour. Time-lapse video created from the in camera jpg images using Photoshop CC. This was the fourth night in a row that we have had thunderstorms.

Saturday (03-August-2019) — New Jersey

Backyard Summertime Nature in New Jersey.

Foggy Morning. Looking out my bedroom window, I could barely see beyond the Sunflower. As soon as the sun came up, the fog started to dissipate. For my morning walkabout I took a Leica TL-2 camera with a 35 mm f/1.4 lens because of the fog and lower light levels. Mainly flowers (Sunflowers, Zinnia, Cosmos, Pokeweed, Coreopsis, Coneflower, Larkspur, Chicory, Four O’Clock) since it was still foggy with great diffuse lighting. A few bumblebees were out, but they seemed to be frozen on the Sunflowers. Maybe they spent the night there.

Back side of a Sunflower from my bedroom window on a foggy morning. Image taken with a Leica TL2 camera and 35 mm f/1.4 lens (ISO 100, 35 mm, f/1.4, 1/200 sec). (DAVID J MATHRE)

Foggy Morning Backyard View. Composite of two images taken with a Leica TL2 camera and 35 mm f/1.4 lens (ISO 100, 35 mm, f/4, 1/125 sec). (DAVID J MATHRE)

Sunflowers. Click on the above image to access the individual images in the slideshow.

Cosmos. Click on the above image to access the individual images in the slideshow.

Zinnia. Click on the above image to access the individual images in the slideshow.

Click on the above image to access the individual images in the slideshow.

Daily Electric Energy Used (58.4 kWh) from Sense and Daily Solar Electric Energy Produced (67.3 kWh) from SolSystems and Locus Energy. Net Surplus 8.9 kWh.

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Tuesday (23-July-2019) — New Jersey

Summertime Backyard Nature in New Jersey.

The Daily Walkabout didn’t happen as it was raining most of the day. At least it is a lot cooler outside. The high was 74 °F, 19 °F lower than yesterday. Now up to 1.80 inches of rain over three days. Just before dinnertime, I noticed that there were two fawns with spots in the lawn just behind my patio. Their mother was nowhere in sight. In the last image, I noticed that the rabbit is still around, and didn’t get eaten by the coyotes in the neighborhood.

Click on the above image to access the individual slideshow images in my gallery.

Daily Electric Energy Used (52.0 kWh) from Sense and Daily Solar Electric Energy Produced (31.5 kWh) from SolSystems and Locus Energy. The amount of Electric Energy used was down 26 kWh from yesterday, but still a 20.5 kWh deficit because of the clouds limiting the solar production.

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Monday (22-July-2019) — New Jersey

Summertime Backyard Nature in New Jersey.

Daily Walkabout. Still hot and humid outside. The high was 93 °F with a heat index of 108 °F according to my personal weather station. Clouds developed and ultimately more thunderstorms (two days in a row) with 1.08 inches of rain over the two days. A large number of mushrooms popped up overnight, and I was able to get an image of the Troll mushroom farmers guarding their crop.

Troll Mushroom Farmers. Composite of 50 focus stacked images taken with a Nikon D850 camera and 105 mm f/1.4 lens (ISO 64, 105 mm, f/1.4, 1/80 sec). Raw images processed with Capture One Pro and Focus Magic. (DAVID J MATHRE)

Daily Power Use (78.0 kWh) from Sense and Solar Production (65.6 kWh) from SolSystems and Locus Energy. The WaterFurnace geothermal HVAC system is able to maintain the indoor temperature at 74-76 °F using ~35 kWh of electricity. My previous 30 year old central A/C unit would not have been able to maintain the indoor temperature below 85 °F with outdoor temperatures above 90 °F and used significantly more electricity. Granted, I now have better insulation, an attic fan, and more efficient French doors.