Monday, February 05, 2007

VogSet

There are certain days when the air over Maui comes up from the south and brings with it the gases that are expelled from Kilauea Volcano.

The air is grey and hazy and looks like the polluted air I often see on the mainland when I visit. While flying over Houston Texas I saw some of the worst air I have ever seen. This filthy air extended well into the Florida panhandle. I asked the flight attendant if there was a fire and she said this was normal. Jeez!

Here this pollution is called Vog . It is natural air pollution, so we have to live with it when it happens. Not much use in cussing about a volcano.




















Today the Vog was thick. Out on the western horizon it was so thick I could look at the sun as it was setting without much of a blinding response. An orange ball descending into the haze.

3 comments:

christin m p in massachusetts said...

Vog or not, that looks so incredibly good to me -- especially this week. Check out our overnight/early morning low temperatures here for at least the next full week. This weather is downright painful.

I want to spend more time outdoors, because the air inside tightly insulated homes is supposed to be poor quality. But even with extra layers of clothing, outdoor air that's this cold is still very uncomfortable.

What I need is a whole bunch of house plants to improve the air quality indoors, as it's just too expensive to open a window (even a tiny bit) to get fresh air at this time of year. As it is, I already dread seeing the heating bill for this month.

Christopher C. NC said...

It is going to be a major adjustment for me to move north. The thought of being couped up in a house with all the windows closed is not attractive.

I froze here when it got down to about 58 degrees and only closed half of my windows.

christin m p in massachusetts said...

Just so you know, after only one winter in the north, 58 degrees will come to feel like beach weather to you. But I don't think it's possible for any human to acclimate to this ten degree crap.