Ironman 70.3 Hawaii is less than 3 weeks away. For those that will be here racing, I thought it might be time to post a bit of an update on West Hawaii's air quality. As I'm sure everyone knows, there's been a fresh lava breakout along Kilauea's east rift zone inside a housing subdivision in east Hawaii island. While the videos of the fissures are dramatic, the actual area affected is fairly small acreage wise. For those that have homes in that part of the Puna district (Leilani Estates and Lanipuna) the release of hazardous levels of gas are of serious concern -- for the rest of the island, not so much. If you're particularly sensitive to air quality you might notice a slight difference in comparison to previous year's races but nothing significant.
The past two weeks saw an early jump in VOG (Volcanic Fog, the smog like gunk you often see here) levels along the Kona and Kohala coast with a day or two where you couldn't see the coastline from 2 miles away. Since then, however, things have improved dramatically and are approaching "normal" VOG levels. The trade-winds are doing a wonderful job of blowing the VOG away. On most days the VOG lightens dramatically north of Waikoloa Village anyway. Since Honu starts at Hapuna Beach, well north of there, rides up to the outskirts of Hawi town and has the run at the Mauna Lani resort area, you should be well clear of most of it come race day.
Absent a sudden increase in volcanic output I'd anticipate that conditions will be normal or quite close to normal come race day (hot, humid, windy).
There's also an air quality index website you can use to track our current conditions:
https://www.airnow.gov/...state&stateid=12
Aloha.
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The difference between stupidity and genius is that genius has its limits. -- A fake Albert Einstein "quote"
The past two weeks saw an early jump in VOG (Volcanic Fog, the smog like gunk you often see here) levels along the Kona and Kohala coast with a day or two where you couldn't see the coastline from 2 miles away. Since then, however, things have improved dramatically and are approaching "normal" VOG levels. The trade-winds are doing a wonderful job of blowing the VOG away. On most days the VOG lightens dramatically north of Waikoloa Village anyway. Since Honu starts at Hapuna Beach, well north of there, rides up to the outskirts of Hawi town and has the run at the Mauna Lani resort area, you should be well clear of most of it come race day.
Absent a sudden increase in volcanic output I'd anticipate that conditions will be normal or quite close to normal come race day (hot, humid, windy).
There's also an air quality index website you can use to track our current conditions:
https://www.airnow.gov/...state&stateid=12
Aloha.
---------------------------------------------------------
The difference between stupidity and genius is that genius has its limits. -- A fake Albert Einstein "quote"
Last edited by:
KonaCoffee: May 15, 18 9:38