Thursday, October 29, 2009

The Vog

Nope, i'm not misspelling Fog or Smog, it's Vog. A phenomena that can be particularly bad in Hawaii, and today was out in force.

I meant to take a picture all day but forgot - this one is from Wikipedia, and it literally looked like this all day - from my house I couldn't even see the other side of the valley....

Vog is basically Volcanic Smog - volcanic gases, dust and other not so lovely things created from Kilauea on the Big Island, that blows over to Oahu on a Kona Wind and sits until the major tradewinds come back and sweep it away. Vog has a lot of sulphur-dioxide in it, so is hazardous to people with respiratory problems, and all are advised to stay inside with air conditioning. By the time it gets to Oahu, most of the harmful volcanic gases are gone, but the thick dust in the air still causes a lot of problems.

As much as I hate air conditioning, this did make me turn on my one at home today. That and my 101F fever that continued until about an hour ago when I finally started to feel normal again and came down to 98.9F (nothing compared to what little Mollie is going through right now! Get better soon Mollie!!!). It's been so humid here recently, but i've got so used to it that suddenly having the dry air conditioning on made me realize just how damp my apartment was beginning to get. Mold grows faster than anything here, especially in Manoa valley where I live, you really need to keep on top of it. It's more than time for the "fall clean" up to boot (today I found some t-shirts I had stored in a drawer had gone moldy), this weekend i'm definitely going to try and make time for that.

Hopefully tomorrow the Vog will have lifted, my cold will have passed and my AC will be off. The later, at least, is a certainty.

3 comments:

kmk said...

I never experienced vog on Oahu, but when we moved to the Big Island, it was there almost everyday. It was ad to see how the blue ocean turned gray with the vog. Hang in there and hope you get better soon!

bsa said...

Hope you are soon feeling better. Mother hen advice: don't run until you are totally better. Do try a good walk or two in your new shoes before running again.Perhaps consult with the store where you bought them.

Happy Halloween!

LSULiv said...

Oh how I don't miss that LA-like quality about the islands-- it was amazing from Alewa Heights where we lived when you could hardly see beyond Diamondhead, or sometimes the yard!!! Hope your fever goes down soon. Wish I could bring ya some hot soup! Thanks for rooting for Mollie-- we're all pretty obsessed with her situation right now and hoping it gets better ASAP.