Category Archives: Weather

As time goes by

This week’s Sunday Stills challenge theme is ‘Weathered.’ See more responses here.

In the top photo, a dead tree on the lower slopes on Mauna Kea, stretches weathered branches toward the sky.

Second photo: Petroglyphs in Hawaii Volcanoes National Park have been weathered by years of sun and rain, but are still clearly visible.

Third photo: A cattle ranch alongside old Saddle Road includes this old structure bordering a stockyard.

Bottom photo: Butterflies have a short lifespan, but in that time they can go from looking boldly marked and colored to very faded, with some looking like it’s a miracle they can fly at all.

For more information about Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, go to nps.gov/havo/.

The ocean doesn’t want me today

I like to go snorkeling whenever I get the opportunity, but there are some days when that’s not possible. This is a photo of my local snorkeling spot. That’s the parking area on the right, and the place where I generally park my car is right where that tower of spray is.

In other words, this was the kind of day to find something else to do, such as take photos from the shore.

Posted in response to Becky’s October Squares challenge theme of ‘Kind.’ See more responses here.

Brush fire aftermath

This week’s Sunday Stills challenge theme is ‘Dry.’ (See more responses here.) I posted a photo of one of the local cow pastures yesterday (here), which would have been fine for this topic, but this is another aspect of these unusually dry conditions. It makes the land susceptible to fires.

There have been a couple of fires in the area recently. The first of these was caused by someone setting fire to an abandoned vehicle, which is something of a local sport. These photos were from the aftermath of the second fire. The cause is currently unknown, but about 40 acres were burned. I took these photos a couple of days after the fire happened and there were still some small areas emitting smoke.

The top photo shows burned areas and lighter brown unburned grass. When I walked on this grass it crunched beneath my feet, it’s so dry. The second photo shows a hotspot that was still putting out puffs of smoke. The bottom photo shows burned land next to the highway. In the center of this photo, that large metal pipe is there to channel water beneath the highway. If this seems redundant in this very dry scene, bear in mind that rains in the Kohala Mountains can send flash floods down these gullies and, without pipes like this one, the road could easily be washed out.

Dry cow pasture

A couple of days ago I posted an image of an irrigation unit used in one of the local dairy’s fields (here). This is the same kind of field but without irrigation. There were more cows in this field than blades of grass because it’s been so dry in this part of the island.

Ironically, since I took this photo three days ago, we’ve had a couple of days of fairly solid rain and this field is already showing a tinge of green where new grass is coming through. However, the last time it was this dry, after it rained the first things to spring up were weeds which basically choked out the grass.

Posted in response to Becky’s October Squares challenge theme of ‘Kind.’ See more responses here.

The golfball

This week’s Sunday Stills challenge theme is ‘Towering.’ See more responses here.

Up near the top of Kohala Mountain is this array of towers. They sit in the middle of pastureland, surrounded by cattle and horses. The one with the large white ball on top is NEXRAD, the Next Generation Weather Radar, which provides current time information showing where clouds and rain are moving through the area. It’s also a navigation aid to local pilots who refer to it as the golfball.

The cattle don’t have access to the information from the golfball, but they know that when they’re wet, it’s raining, and when they’re dry, it’s not, and really that’s all anyone needs to know.