To see what conditions are like out on the lava fields and visitor area right now, check out this recent video shot & edited by UHH Center for the Study of Active Volcanoes (CSAV). I have met this team and they do an excellent job recording the lava activity. This October 28th, 2009 CSAV video shows pahoehoe lava break-out lobes and visitors watching the latest surface flows from the new viewing trailhead viewing area. This video will match my post reporting on the same day and location.

Last night the scene at both viewing areas was about the same as shown in that video. Yesterday and last night we watched more kipuka (small remnant forest & vegetative patches left behind by previous lava flows) glow and burst into flames as molten pahoehoe lava slowly moved into them.

On Monday I reported we had a tremendous show of explosive lava the night before. CSAV has a spectacular video of a 1994 coastal eruption event that looks identical to what we witnessed from the Civil Defense viewing area of the Waikupanaha ocean entry last Sunday night, Oct. 25th, 2009: littoral lava cone, bubble and sheet explosions of raw yellow molten lava.


Meanwhile up under the Kilauea Volcano there was a brief twelve hour deflation period, which may have caused some slowing of lava to the sea late last night. Inflation is slowly returning now.

This morning winds are light under mostly cloudy skies here on the most easterly tip of the Big Island. I have not been down to check surf conditions, but I cannot hear any surf this morning coming from the shoreline a mile away, so that may indicate small surf…. I know—a lame surf report but it is actually pretty accurate; I use the same method to determine if I should go surfing :) .... but for the official Hawaii surf report for today