Storm - David Mathre Photography

Thursday (02-September-2021) — New Jersey

Hurricane Ida Aftermath.

Yesterday afternoon and night the remnants of Hurricane Ida passed through New Jersey. My weather station recorded nearly 7 inches (175 mm) of rain. There were several tornado warnings, and I spent some time down in the basement. The rain stopped around midnight. As soon as the sun came up this morning, I went for a walkabout down Grandview Road to the single lane bridge over Rock Brook. There was a pickup truck with a very long trailer having problems trying to turn around. Also, a dump truck that needed to back out. Once I got close to the bridge, the asphalt roadway had been washed off of the road. Water was running across the roadway, and the bridge was blocked with several fallen trees. It will be some time before the bridge and roadway can be repaired. I can’t complain as I still have power, and no flooding.

Damage from the Remnants of Hurricane Ida. Individual images in the slideshow are available in my PhotoShelter Gallery.

Daily Electric Energy Used (63.7 kWh) from Sense. Daily Solar Electric Energy Produced (64.0 kWh) from Sense and SolSystems. The sun returned. A surplus of 0.3 kWh.

Tuesday (04-August-2020) — New Jersey

Tropical Storm Isaias.

During the night the clouds were moving fast. The first heavy rain squall passed through about 05:15. It started raining again at 09:00 with heavy bands at 11:15 and 11:45. The weather station reported 3.19″ of rain up to the time it stopped collecting data. The wind started increasing at 09:00 with sustained winds of 18 mph and gusts of 34 mph. Power to the house failed at 11:06. The weather station continued to report data until 13:25 via WiFi when the UPS for the network went offline. By the time the weather station stopped collecting data the relative barometric pressure dropped from 30.0″ to 29.4″

I reported the power failure to PSE&G online at 11:21 and was told it would be restored by 18:00 the next day. I could hear several of the neighbors generator running. A neighbor texted me that live power lines were down and arcing in the street in front of my house. I took some pictures from my front door, and the back door of the garage. Even though it was still raining the arcing 10 kV power lines started to burn the asphalt. It took a while until the power company de-energized the lines. After the lines were de-energized I went to check out the damage. The two large oak trees at the head of my driveway had fallen. The oak tree on the east side of the driveway broke above ground and fell onto my rock wall and crossed the street ultimately landing on the rock wall on the other side of the street. The tree missed my mailbox with the troll that lights up at night, but did block my driveway and the street. The oak on the west side of the driveway fell while pulling the root ball out of the ground. These were two of the largest trees in my yard.

Downed Power Lines Electical Fire on Grandview Road in front of my House. Individual images in the slideshow are available in my PhotoShelter Gallery.

Little Planet View of my front yard after Tropical Storm Isaias. Composite of 22 images taken with a Leica CL camera and 18 mm f/2.8 lens (DAVID J MATHRE)

Individual images used to create the Little Planet view of my Front Yard after Tropical Storm Isaias. Individual images in the slideshow are available in my PhotoShelter Gallery.

Front yard after Tropical Storm Isaias. Montgomery Township Volunteer Fire Company, District 1, Car 46. Image taken with a Leica CL camera and 18 mm f/2.8 lens (DAVID J MATHRE)

Front yard after Tropical Storm Isaias. West side side oak tree across Grandview Road, composite of 4 images. Image taken with a Leica CL camera and 18 mm f/2.8 lens (DAVID J MATHRE)

East Side Downed Oak Tree; West Side Downed Oak Tree; Downed Power Lines Damage to Grandview Road. Individual images in the slideshow are available in my PhotoShelter Gallery.

Eight-Years Ago (28-August-2011) — New Jersey

Hurricane Irene. Central New Jersey.

My Sunday afternoon post from eight-years ago. Today we are watching as Hurricane Dorian tracks toward central Florida.

By mid-afternoon, I still was not able to report the downed power lines in my yard. I drove to the nearby High School where there I could get much better ATT wireless Internet reception. I logged onto the PSE&G site and reported that I didn’t have power and that I had downed wires in the yard. The automated response let me know that they would have power restored by 8 PM 04-September (next Sunday). I figured that I would be living in my RV for the week. By the time that I got back to the house, I was very surprised to see 3 PSE&G trucks pulling up. It took them some time to free the downed wire from the trees and vines. It was right around this time that the wind and a small amount of rain started up from the back side of the hurricane. I commend the PSE&G workers for their dedication to be out working before the storm had passed. After they completed here, they fixed some other local problems and were able to restore power before it got dark. I feel lucky this time that power was restored this quickly. I know that there are many others still without power and the PSE&G crews will be busy for the next several days. The following images were taken with a Leica X1 camera. Images taken with a Nikon D700 camera will be included in another post.

PSE&G Truck and Crew Getting Set Up oo Repair the Downed Power Line. Hurricane Irene. Image taken with a Leica X1 camera. (David J Mathre)

PSE&G Workers Viewing the Downed Power Line. Hurricane Irene. Image taken with a Leica X1 camera. (David J Mathre)

Downed Power Line. Hurricane Irene. Image taken with a Leica X1 camera. (David J Mathre)

PSE&G Truck and Crew Working on the Downed Power Line. Hurricane Irene. Image taken with a Leica X1 camera. (David J Mathre)

PSE&G Worker Working to Free the the Downed Power Line from Trees and Vines. Hurricane Irene. Image taken with a Leica X1 camera. (David J Mathre)

One-Year Ago (22-December-2014) — Falkland Islands

Gone to See Antarctica 2014/2015. Hurtigruten Christmas Voyage on the MS Fram. Day 7: Stanley, Falkland Islands.

Port Stanley Lighthouse — Storm Approaching. From the deck of the Hurtigruten MS Fram while leaving port. The lighthouse is located at the end of Cape Pembroke. Image taken with a Leica T camera and 18-56 mm lens (ISO 100, 56 mm, f/16, 1/1000 sec). Raw image processed with Capture One Pro 8, Focus Magic, Nik Define, and Photoshop CC.

Monday (23-June-2014) — Portugal

Gone to See Europe 2014. Day 23: Semester at Sea, Summer 2014 Semester Voyage. Lisbon, Portugal.

Morning Storm Clouds on the Tagus River in Lisbon, Portugal from the Deck of the MV Explorer. Composite of 17 images taken with a Leica X2 camera (ISO 100, 24 mm, f/4.5, 1/60 sec). AutoPano Giga Pro, Silver Efex Pro.