Should I cancel my plans to visit to Hawai`i Island because of SO2 and vog?
Predicting the vog levels that visitors might experience during a short stay in Hawai`i is as difficult as predicting the weather. Once volcanic emissions are in the atmosphere, they are distributed by prevailing winds. Trade, or northeasterly, winds are dominant 80-90% of the time during the summer and produce poor air quality on the southern and western sides of the island. The east or windward side is more likely to experience poor air quality during trade wind interruptions, which occur more frequently during the winter months. Where and how bad the vog is ultimately depends on several factors besides wind direction and wind speed including air temperature, humidity, and rainfall as well as the location of the source and amount of SO2 being emitted from Kīlauea Volcano. For normally healthy people, the level of vog typically experienced during trade wind conditions along the Kona coast on Hawai`i Island—especially for short-term exposures such as a week of vacation—can be more anno
