Ask 10 farmers and you’ll get 10 opinions. Well, despite that, I’ve been asking around. There is some consensus: the volcano is affecting the Kona coffee, and right now the effect seems to be totally positive. More flowering than some Kona farms have seen in a long time, and the trees are bright green and […]

Yesterday evening I went outside onto my lanai and something was different. At first I couldn’t put my finger on it. Then I realized… I could see the sky! A big blue patch and some normal looking clouds. It was great! I smiled and enjoyed the lack of smell in the air as much as […]

Early this morning there was a “voluntary evacuation advisory” (PURPLE alert, the highest level) issues for Hawaiian Ocean View Estates (HOVE) in the Ka’u District issued by Hawaii Country Civil Defense. By 10 AM, it was called off. The Color Code is now YELLOW for Ka’u, indicating “light” levels of sulphur dioxide. All other parts […]

Today the gas emissions from the volcano have blanketed Kailua Kona. So thick is the cloud that one cannot see common landmarks up mauka (mauka means away from the sea, toward the center of the island; in Kona, toward the inactive volcano Hualalai.) Going along Queen Kaahumanu Highway (Hwy. 11, the Belt Road) looking mauka, […]

It is in the nature of volcanoes to be unpredictable. The flawed but excellent movie Volcano, with Tommy Lee Jones, is based on the volcano Paricutin, which appeared suddenly and without precedent in a farmer’s cornfield in Mexico in February of 1943 and eventually covered 20 square miles with volcanic material. A sudden Strombolian eruption […]

Volcano Village, Volcano Golf Course Subdivision, the Keauhou Ranch area, Mauna Loa Estates and Ohia Estates are now ( morning of Tues. April 8th) advised by the Hawaii County Civil Defense that the color code PURPLE is in effect for these areas. That means people living in or visiting this portion of the Big Island […]

That seems to be the usual story on this volcanically very active Big Island of Hawaii. The vent at Halemaumau continues to create a plume of ash. The USGS continues to report ‘elevated’ levels of sulfur dioxide and seismic tremors. Volcano Alert Level is still WATCH, and the Aviation Color Code is still ORANGE. The […]

No, not yet. But maybe later. Hawaii County has issued a five-tier system for expressing the danger of sulfur dioxide in the air. The official language of each color, from Green to Yellow to Orange to Red to Purple sounds unfortunately similar… sensitive persons should stay indoors, etc…. but there are a couple of major […]