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Old 11-09-2010, 11:02 PM
 
Location: Big Island of Hawaii
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MD is right in saying that much of the "brown" you see on the island right now is due to drought. We are just starting to see the Waimea hills down Kawaihae Road start to turn green again. As you drive Saddle Road, you will still see the evidence of the "D-5" drought much of the island has been experiencing this year. (VIDEO: Historic drought threatens Kona coffee - March 2010)

The best way I can explain how I feel about VOG "now vs then" is to say that a year or so ago I checked this National Park Service Current SO2 Conditions site on a regular basis, even over in Hilo. But, over the last several months I haven't even thought to check it (until writing this post!). For me, that may be because I'm spending much more of my time in South Kohala (Waimea specifically) where the VOG is less noticeable in general. I was in Kona/Keauhou today and it was a "voggy" day, but I didn't notice any ill-effects like I probably would have back when the SO2 levels were much higher. Just a less crisp horizon and more of a sense of "grey-ness" where I would expect to see a deep blue ocean and bright blue sky.
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Old 11-11-2010, 02:20 PM
 
Location: Portland, OR
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My wife (who is from the BI) and I spent two weeks there this past August and drove pretty much everywhere on the island. We made two overnight visits to Kailua-Kona, and both times the vog was quite visible in the afternoon but cleared out by the next morning. Locals described it as "medium heavy." Neither of us suffered any ill effects from the vog, nor could we smell it.

As for dryness, the vegetation along much of the high road up the Kohala peninsula to Hawi was dead and brown, something my wife said she'd never seen before. All of a sudden, the vegetation became green, as it normally does when you move from wet-side to dry-side Kamuela. The area along Saddle Road was brown (it looked like Nevada), and traffic was diverted from the new road to the old road in two places due to a fire caused by an arsonist. The worst, though, was near the volcano, in the area near the Volcano Winery and Kipuka Puaulu (Bird Park). My wife used to go hiking there and said it was always lush and green. In August, much of it was dry and brown, and many of the koa trees appeared to be dead. I hope they had only shed their leaves, because those trees take a long time to grow. We were also sad to see emaciated cattle and wild goats near Waikoloa, because they had no grass to eat.

Also unusual was that temperatures were in the high 70s and the weather was sunny and not windy at the Volcano and in Waimea. On my previous visits, those locations had been chilly and windy, and Waimea had been gray and misty. Locals told us that those areas have been unusually warm of late.

The rest of the BI looked normal, though: lush and green where it was normally lush and green, and dry and brown where it was normally dry and brown. I certainly wouldn't avoid visiting the BI because of the drought.
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Old 11-11-2010, 06:02 PM
 
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You know, I don't think anything could make me avoid the BI. But it sounds so sad about the trees and animals. And I am glad to hear that the VOG isn't that bad.

We do plan on spending ample time in Puna. We got a taste of it last year and we are hooked. I appreciate you all chiming in. And the roads we took were the one you take the long way around the top and also Saddle Road.
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Old 11-11-2010, 10:44 PM
 
Location: Hawaii-Puna District
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You won't have any issues with VOG or brown anything in the Puna District. It's all green.
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Old 11-12-2010, 08:30 AM
 
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Didn't read the thread, but I rarely had problems with vog in Hilo. I didn't think it was all that bad. I can only remember like 2 or 3 times it being an issue in the two years I lived there. I have asthma too... so....
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Old 11-12-2010, 12:39 PM
 
Location: Big Island
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Default Nothing is Perfect...thank the Gods!

Our family lives about 12 /14 miles from volcano.We have days that the sulphur emission is more than annoying .I am home most times so I run around closing windows until it passes.Due to a near fatal auto accident a few years ago I have compromised lungs and we all have allergies. We still do not want to live anywhere else . We deal with Pele's wrath which is shortlived as well as her sisters downpours!The Big Island is a beautiful ,mysterious place to call home.
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Old 11-12-2010, 10:55 PM
 
Location: Big Island of Hawaii
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My wife and I have two residences - Kapoho & Kalapana (East side of the island). We experience zero vog in either place. There is, however, vog to be experienced in Kalapana, just not in our particular location. Kapoho, for us, is just wonderful in every way. Personally, I recommend Kapoho and Opihikao as great places for quality air.

Just a side note: Adjacent to the Kapoho lighthouse is a monitoring station for ALOHA - Alliance for Long-term Observations of the Hawaiian Atmosphere. A sign at the station reads: "This site at Cape Kumukahi has some of the cleanest air in the northern hemisphere..."
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Old 11-13-2010, 01:00 AM
 
Location: Hawaii-Puna District
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Areas East and slightly North East of the volcanoes tend to have zero vog. This includes most of the Puna District since the trade winds blow it all away.
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Old 01-20-2011, 05:58 PM
 
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Someone on another forum posted this and it has been helpful for me:

Vog Measurement and Prediction (VMAP) | Vog Model
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Old 01-21-2011, 04:39 AM
 
Location: Volcano
12,969 posts, read 28,257,915 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by susiemisajon View Post
There are cities on the Big Isle?
Heh. No. Hilo is only a town, not a city.

I live about a mile and a half above the volcano, and I don't get a lot of vog. Occasional bad days. The prevailing NE winds mostly blow the emissions plume the other way. But the microclimes of the Big Island are quite variable, and neighbors both makai and mauka of here have had more.

Unfortunately, most of it blows over to the Kona side to add to what is venting out there, so the Kona area gets more vog overall than the windward side.

And yes, last year was one of the dryest years in our lifetime and again, the Kona side got the worst of it. But the Puna distract is green and lush, and the rain the last few weeks has been doing its best to catch up.
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