Volcanic haze continues ~ Active lava flows all but ceased ~ Mild magma inflation returns

The ocean entry looks like this photo minus any sulfur/steam or molten lava!

Yep Pele has taken a New Years holiday. Being a Volcano Goddess can be tiring I suppose. She has paused her lava creations at this Waikupanaha entry before, but no quite so long: six days straight and at low levels:

Visitors that took the walk out to the County viewing area last night, that I spoke with, reported either seeing no lava plume or activity - to seeing two small glowing areas at Waikupanaha. One woman was even excited to see that much; she had come a long ways to see our active volcano and for her she saw one. But there were many other visitors that were highly disappointed. The Civil Defense staff at the lava viewing trailhead did place a sign stating there was no lava to be viewed and also told the visitors that. Had there actually been lava pouring into the sea as it usually does, ironically the viewing area would have closed anyway due to southwest winds causing the toxins to lie directly across the area.

The Halema’uma’u crater vent is fuming towards the northeast this morning as of 10:00 AM:

Voggy conditions continue
The plume chart above copied this morning at 10:00 AM shows continued southwesterly winds pushing the sulfur dioxide towards the northeast. Northeast is the direction or fresh Trade Winds generally come from. The result is very voggy conditions over a wide area of the Big Island and beyond. What will these winds do in the coming days?…


National Weather Service Forecast Honolulu Hawaii A front approaching the state from the northwest is expected to stall near Kauai tonight. Kauai will see the majority of clouds and showers through Tuesday, while Oahu and Maui will see partly cloudy skies with passing showers. Expect mostly clear skies and a slight chance of showers over the Big Island. The southwest winds will continue to carry vog across most of the aloha state until mid week, when another front pushes down the island chain from Kauai to Maui county Wednesday and Thursday. Trade winds return Thursday and Friday before winds become variable again over the weekend. Updated: 01/04/2010 10:00 am HST

Phone the Civil Defense lava viewing hotline after 3:00 PM at 961-8093 to find out if the viewing area is open. They will, though, not likely tell you whether there is any lava activity out there. My guess is that tonight there may be a little bit of an ocean entry plume but likely very subdued.