Cold front blocks
By Rod Thompson
tradewinds, and vog
heads for east Hawaii
Star-BulletinHILO -- Mikki Tulang, home from San Diego to visit her parents during the holidays, got a rotten welcome from Mother Nature.
Heavy vog from Kilauea volcano, usually blown toward Kona by tradewinds, is blanketing east Hawaii instead and making Tulang's life miserable.
Tulang, 25, normally suffers allergylike symptoms when she comes home but can control them with antihistamines, said her mother, Julie, who administers the Hawaii County Department of Parks and Recreation.
But the vog overwhelmed the antihistamines. "She took it and it didn't go away," Julie Tulang said.
Mikki wasn't alone in her suffering. Civil Defense Director Harry Kim said he got about 100 calls yesterday morning complaining about the vog.
Civil Defense clerk Mei Hirayama said most callers give a lengthy description of how vog is affecting them, then decline to give their name or telephone number.
Apparently, talking about vog is their best therapy. The Hilo Hospital emergency room said it did not receive any patients with vog complaints.
The National Weather Service said Mikki Tulang and others like her can expect more vog at least until tomorrow night.
The problem is being caused by a cold front northwest of Hawaii that sets up a movement of air from the south to the north, said weather service employee Paul Jendrowski.
That blocks tradewinds that normally carry vog to Kona and then to south of Honolulu.
The interruption of normal winds is more common in winter, he said.
Robert Castro, of the Honolulu office of the American Lung Association, said no complaints were received there, but he did notice a haze in the air yesterday morning.
Police on Kauai also said there was voglike haze there.
Jendrowski said it's hard to tell if those reports described vog or just condensation from moist air pulled northward from near the equator.
One group of people pleased by the events were Kona people who usually have to live with vog almost year-round.
"It's beautiful in Kona!" said Ann Nies at the lung association's Kona office.
And it seemed Hilo, too, got a break yesterday when winds blew the vog away.
But Jendrowski warned that the Big Island's mountains can create local air currents that will do that during the day, with vog possibly returning to east Hawaii at night.
