Trip Advisor Names Kailua-Kona the Top "On-The-Rise" Destination in the US

[Mark.ca]

One of you should move there and settle this once and for all....wait, that might not work....how about you both move....in the same house too...ok, you can have separate rooms.

[OpenD]

Originally Posted by Mark.ca

One of you should move there and settle this once and for all....wait, that might not work....how about you both move....in the same house too...ok, you can have separate rooms.

You misunderstand the situation completely. I base my posts on facts... provable facts. And I seek out credible proof that verifies what I say to share with others. That's why I post as many links as I do, so people can rely on what I say, and check me out when they wish. And when I have been mistaken, as I certainly have been, just as everyone is at one time or another, I've said so. Despite being so careful to verify what I say, I sometimes run into opposition from others' uneducated opinions, and occasionally even run into someone who is more committed to being "right" than to dealing honestly with the actual facts when contradicted by them.

In this case, I posted scientifically validated information from the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration, as researched by University of Hawai'i at Hilo professors, and confirmed by local NOAA weather profiles on City Data, and it is countered by what... a Wikipedia entry? For a different location? That's a double error, by someone who doesn't wish to learn.

On one level I understand the confusion and the uneducated objection, because, in this specific case as an example, the microclimates of the Big Island have tripped up many people before. I know it defies "common sense", but the weather patterns for two places can be very different even though they are separated by only a short distance. Literally.

I have a friend who lives in Volcano Country Club Estates, about 1 1/2 miles due west from my place in the Village, and the rainfall there, on average, is about 1/3 what we get. Or look at the contrast between the low temperatures here, where census figures show that 1/3 of the homes have wood-burning stoves and fireplaces, versus Mountain View, less than 14 miles down the Belt Highway from Volcano, where fewer than 10% of the homes do. Short differences on the Big Island can involve strikingly different weather patterns. That's why the boffins record 8 separate and distinct climate zones on this small island in the middle of the Pacific. And that's why the weather records for Keohole Point, where the KOA Airport is, are nearly irrelevant for understanding what the weather is like at Keauhou Bay, where the Sheraton Kona is, a mere 15 miles away.

As both "soft" personal observation and hard scientific evidence prove, there are places along the Kona Coast where you can stand on the beach, look up the slope, at the lands mauka the beach, and literally have your line of sight cross 4 different climate zones. No joke. I've personally witnessed this, when it has been raining up above Mamalahoa Highway and yet is completely dry at the beach, as well as the opposite, when it has been raining at the beach and merely smoggy and humid above the Highway.

When I first ran across this information more than a year ago*, which contradicted something i had been saying, I ran all kinds of cross checks to validate it for myself, including digging into the raw data from NOAA, such as looking at 20 years worth of records from 4 different weather stations in Keauhou at (roughly) sea level, 500', 1,500', and 6,000' altitudes. Even without sophisticated knowledge or analysis it quickly becomes obvious, looking at years and years of data, that places that are very close to each other, possibly even in sight of each other, can have very different weather experiences.

*Here's the article that started me on my own fact-finding quest more than a year ago. It claimed that the Island of Hawai'i has 8 distinct climate zones, not the 11 (of 13) I had been writing about for years. After looking into it, I had to admit that I had been mistaken, based on earlier evidence, which I freely admitted to on the forum. Sadly, some people would rather die than admit that they were ever wrong, and we have a couple of those in residence here. As both history and literature teach us, it's a tragic personal flaw to have.

The 8 (not 11, 12 or 13 ) climate zones on the Big Island of Hawaii

As one of my favorite recent internet memes puts it, over a picture of Morpheus, from "The Matrix":

"It's OK to change your mind, based on new evidence."

[Mark.ca]

You can't blame people for being confused about this. Personally, i don't know if it's true or not...sure looks it's true....but there is a lot of info out there that say otherwise. Just yesterday i was watching that stupid Hawaii Life show on HGTV with that annoying guy "you don't have to be rich to live in Hawaii, you just have to want it!"... There was a question about which climate zone is not found in Hawaii and the answer they give as correct was "winter dry". Easy to see why people get confused.

[OpenD]

Originally Posted by Mark.ca

You can't blame people for being confused about this. Personally, i don't know if it's true or not...sure looks it's true....but there is a lot of info out there that say otherwise. Just yesterday i was watching that stupid Hawaii Life show on HGTV with that annoying guy "you don't have to be rich to live in Hawaii, you just have to want it!"... There was a question about which climate zone is not found in Hawaii and the answer they give as correct was "winter dry". Easy to see why people get confused.

Between the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration and some guy on some show on whatever HGTV is, I know which one I trust.

It's a matter of accountability. The Mauna Loa Observatory and NOAA and the learned professors from UofHH all have their reputations on the line for the information they publish. The guy on Hawai'i Life? Hardly. The NYC based production company that scripted the quiz? As the Pace picante sauce ads put it: New Yawk CITY?!?.

But it's a fair point... people do get confused, and they get hurried and grab the wrong info, and sometimes information changes but doesn't get updated, and you can't always tell hard facts from empty assertions. I participate in other forums where people frequently make assertions based on urban folklore rather than proven fact, or on disproven theories or outdated information. When and where I can, I try to point out those inaccuracies, as well as posting links to authoritative information that is credible and reputable.

And really, why wouldn't you want to know that the weather pattern in one place on the Big Island can be drastically different from another place that's just a mile or two away? It seems to me that's an important consideration if you're looking for a place to live, or even just picking a place for a vacation.

[Jungjohann]

The fact of the matter OD is that you over state it, over quote it, over footnote it, over verify it, quite often over pontificate it, over bloviate it, generally over do it, and, quite frankly, I don't pay any attention to either of you guys anymore. Guess that's from living here so long.

Mele kalikmaka dat

I just come here for the laughs

[OpenD]

Originally Posted by Jungjohann

The fact of the matter OD is that you over state it, over quote it, over footnote it, over verify it, quite often over pontificate it, over bloviate it, generally over do it, and, quite frankly, I don't pay any attention to either of you guys anymore.

Oh, JJ, surely you know by now that I am completely over any concern about what others may think. I oversteer by a completely different star.

Besides, as it says here in volume 7 of the 10 volume set of Famous Dead Guys Quotes (I have the whole set, although termites wiped out a big chunk of Volume 3 and I'm looking to replace it):

Oh, gosh, I hope that doesn't violate the TOS.

-----

Edit: Shootz, while I was writing that I got a bunch of reps for various of my overinflated, overbaked, and oversalted posts, like I do most days, and one of them said, in reference to another topic:

Your posts in this thread are wonderful -- both lucid and smart. I've enjoyed reading them.

You'd think I'd be used to it by now, but you know, it made me smile. So I guess I really do care a little. K:

OverD