Mixed Clouds Over Kawaihae Bay

Kawaihae Bay

Location: Kohala Coast, Big Island, Hawaii

I live on the northwestern coast of Hawaii's Big Island, and my house is on a hill overlooking the Pacific Ocean.  From our garden, we have a clear view of sunsets and weather phenomena over the ocean, and these are among my favorite photography subjects.  This wide-angle photo was taken from my hill a few days ago, in the late afternoon.   It shows a small ship heading for Kawaihae, a port just a few miles down the coast from where I live.  Overhead the sky had been covered for hours with a constantly changing array of clouds ahead of a weather system that was about to move in.   I'm happy to report that this time we did get some rain, although not nearly as much as we need.

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Morning Sky in Rural Hawaii

Location: Kohala Coast, Big Island, Hawaii

Never go out for an early morning walk without your camera.  If you do, you'll surely see something worth photographing, and you will have to run back to the house for your camera, just as I had to do a few days ago.  Fortunately I had only walked about 200 meters down the road from my house when I saw this scene.

This was the sky I saw a little past 7 AM that day.  The sun had just cleared the top of Mauna Kea -- the mountain in the far left of this photo -- and was shining brightly into the clouds as if trying to melt them.   Indeed, the clouds overhead were starting to dissipate without giving us any rain again!!  We really, really need rain in my area.  If you don't believe me, look at the color of the grass in the field in the foreground.

In the center of the photo is Mauna Loa, the second highest mountain in Hawaii.  It was partly obscured that morning by a layer of "vog" that had drifted over from Kilauea, a volcano that is erupting vigorously at present.  "Vog" is what we call the haze produced from volcanic emissions here in Hawaii. (Kilauea is not visible in this photo.)

The mountain on the right hand side of the photo -- the one trying to hide behind the coconut trees -- is called Hualalai.   Later in the day, Hualalai became completely obscured by the vog, but at this point in the morning, the sky above it was clear and blue.

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New Zealand's Earl Mountains

Earl Mountains

Location:  Fiordland, South Island, New Zealand

Here is another photo from our trip to New Zealand's South Island last year. This is a view of the inland side of a range called the Earl Mountains.  The photo was taken from a hiking trail near the road that goes from Te Anau to Milford Sound in the Fiordland National Park.

Although it had rained steadily the day before, on this day the sky was a pristine blue.  Some puffy cumulus clouds were hugging the very tops of the mountains, partially hiding the fingers of melting snow near the peaks.  

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Tautuku Beach on New Zealand's South Island

Tautuku Beach

Location: South Island, New Zealand

Last year, my husband and I spent a month in New Zealand, traveling all over the South Island.  One of the most scenic coastal areas we visited was a rugged section of the southeast coast known as the Catlins.  This photo, taken from a spot called the Florence Hill Lookout, shows Tautuku Beach.  The spit of land at the far end of the bay is the Tautuku peninsula, which was home to a whaling station in the 19th century.

The sky was overcast for most of the several days we spent in this area, and it drizzled off and on.  Although the rain and lack of direct sun made it a bit chilly, the cloudy sky was anything but dreary.

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Smoke on the Water

Location: Kohala Coast, Big Island, Hawaii

This photo was taken just about a year ago, on the morning of Oct. 28, 2007.  There was a large wildfire in an area a few miles down the coast from where I live.   The smoke plume from the fire wafted out across the ocean, and was visible from my back garden.  The smoke spoiled what had been a beautiful clear blue-sky day.  By the way, in case you are wondering, the fire burned a large area of open land, but there were no injuries, and no houses were burned.

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Afternoon Offshore Rain Squall

Location: Kohala Coast, Big Island, Hawaii

Late one afternoon we watched as some offshore clouds began to pile up.  This cumulonimbus cloud formed before our eyes, and a rain squall ensued as the clouds moved along, parallel to our coast.  Unfortunately for us, the rain stayed offshore.

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Red Sky at Night, Sailors' Delight?

Red sky at night, sailors' delight;
Red sky at morning, sailors take warning.

When there are suspended particles and aerosols in the atmosphere at sunset, shorter wavelengths (violets and blues) of the setting sun's light get scattered, while the longer wavelengths (red and oranges) are able to penetrate.  We see a sunset like this one.

Traditionally, the 'red sky at night' sailor's axiom holds, at least in the northern hemisphere, because weather systems tend to travel from the west to the east.  Thus, the dust and water vapor that refract the light are to the east of the sunset, meaning they have passed.  Conversely, a 'red sky at morning' means that the weather system is to the west and therefore still approaching.

In this case, however, the red sunset is not caused by a stormy weather system.   Instead the aerosols and particles in the atmosphere offshore are components of volcano smog -- called vog here in Hawaii.  On days when the winds are calm or relatively light here, emissions from Kilauea, the very active volcano on the southern part of Hawaii's Big Island, tend to settle over the island.  We don't like the vog haze -- it burns our eyes and makes our respiratory tracts congested -- but it does make for pretty and often dramatic sunsets.

Location: Kohala Coast, Big Island, Hawaii

Double Rainbow in the Morning

Location: Kohala Coast, Big Island, Hawaii

A couple of weeks ago I posted a photo of a late afternoon rainbow on the mountain east of my house.  Now, facing the other direction, here's an early morning double rainbow.  This is the west-facing view from my back garden.   Sometimes when it rains a bit very early in the morning, we get to see a rainbow like this one over the ocean.

Clouds over Kawaihae Bay

Location: Kohala Coast, Big Island, Hawaii

This is the view from my back garden, facing south.  I took this photo late yesterday afternoon as heavy clouds collected over Kawaihae Bay.  Here on the Kohala Coast of Hawaii's Big Island the weather is very dry near sea level at this time of year.  We were hoping those clouds would give us some much needed rain, but in the end it just sprinkled a bit before the clouds dissipated.

Late Afternoon Rainbow on Kohala Mountain

Location: Kohala Coast, Big Island, Hawaii

In the late afternoon, as a result of daytime convection, clouds tend to build up near the tops of the ridges on Hawaii's mountains.  Often it sprinkles a bit, too - a phenomenon known locally as "afternoon up-slope showers."   For those of us who live closer to sea level, a welcome by-product of those afternoon up-slope showers is the high likelihood of seeing a rainbow when we look toward the higher elevations with the sun behind us.   I snapped this smudgy rainbow with my point-and-shoot camera while standing in my driveway.

Sailboat on the Pacific Ocean at Twilight

Location: Kohala Coast, Big Island, Hawaii

I live on a hill above the ocean, and we often sit outside to watch the sunset.   During the last hour before the sun goes down, we usually see a number of pleasure boats and fishing vessels heading for the port of Kawaihae, which is a few miles down the coast from where we live.  One evening last week, we spotted this particular sailboat heading toward the harbor much later than the others.  It looked a little lonely out on the big ocean all by itself as the sky began to darken.

Early Morning Altocumulus Clouds

Altocumulus Clouds

Location: Kohala Coast, Big Island, Hawaii

The sky over the leeward side of the Hawaii's Big Island was covered by altocumulus clouds early this morning.  I took this photo at 6:09 AM today, just after the sun rose above the mountains to the east of where I live.

Good Morning, Moon

Location: Kohala Coast, Big Island, Hawaii

One morning last month I was outdoors taking photos of birds.  One of the birds I was trying to photograph flew up into the sky, and when I looked up to see where it was going,  I noticed the moon. It was almost directly overhead, and I decided it was as worthy a photo subject as the birds.

For the record, the photo was taken from Hawaii's Kohala Coast on Aug. 22, 2008, at 8:56 AM, Hawaii Standard Time - about 29 hours before the moon officially reached its Last Quarter phase.

Scattered Offshore Showers at Twilight

Location: Kohala Coast, Big Island, Hawaii

Last evening's weather forecast mentioned scattered showers.  The sky was clear all afternoon, but just as the sun was setting, some clouds began to gather over the ocean.  Shortly after the sun sank below the horizon, the sprinkles began offshore, and by nightfall an onshore breeze brought the welcome rain clouds over our hillside garden.

This is my first SkyWatch entry.