Weathering The Storm

Weathering The Storm was Originally Posted on March 4, 2012 by lavarock

Last night, in the midst of a draught here in Hawaii, we had a lightning storm. That would not be overly odd but here. To get lightning you need hot and cold air. Hot is a relative term as our daytime temps rarely get above 85 (think TROPICAL). However, getting cold air at lower elevations is more difficult.

When they mix, we get lightning and thunder, and usually snow. Atop Mauna Kea it is -4F and 90% humidity. That adds up to snow in my book.

A massive rain storm hit Kauai last night with local flooding. We also had heavy rain and lightning here on the Big ISland and it was enough that I had to bring the dogs in off the lanai. They are not used to thunder and were scared. I believe they thought it was the 4th of July or New Years (when people shoot off fireworks). In any event, we all got on the bed and took a nap; both 70 pound Labs pushed up against me for comfort. Because of the early nap (which lasted from about 8pm until 4am, I am now awake and may not get back to sleep right away.

Although any island can get heavy rain, our weather here has been more dry and I think that has been because of the volcano. It has been sending lots of smoke up over the past few years and the vog (volcanic smog) can cause breathing problems for some people when the wind is right.

When I first moved here, the volcano was fairly quiet and it was common to have an afternoon rain. Now we don’t get that and we can go weeks with no rain at all.

Of course, at the moment it is the end of winter and you would expect drier weather.

The Big Island has a very diverse weather situation having 11 of the worlds 13 climate zones crammed into a 90 mile by 90 mile area. We have a rainforest at the active volcano which is next to a desert region. We have “plains” and so on. The micro climates are obvious when you drive a couple miles and the landscape changes dramatically. The town of Waimea is an example. The town is a couple miles wide and has a dry side and a wet side.

Because of the diverse weather, it is possible to grow many different crops here. I have been watching a gardening show out of Australia and their continent does not have as diverse weather as our island.

When I let the dogs out a while ago, I could see lightning still to the north. Every 5 to 7 seconds I could see a flash in the same location. I am not hearing thunder so I assume the storm is quite far north. Earlier tonight I was looking at a program on my smartphone called “Rainydays”. It takes a Google Map type display and overlays current radar. Neat huh?

As I first wrote this, I titled it “The Storm” but since I decided to throw in some weather patterns, I added “weather” to the title.