Kona Life – Two Storms Better Than One

Them who have seen this satellite image . . . 

. . . might be a bit concerned for our well-being. I exaggerate . . . probably not so much ours as the well-being of other people in Hawaii. You can see the Sandwich Islands just to the left of Madeline.

Here . . . perhaps I can help alleviate some of your fears.

OK, that’s probably not going to do it. How about this?

Madeline is projected to sneak by to our South. Lots of rain for the Eastern and Southern part of The Big Island, but it’s not likely to offer a grave danger where we are as it’s weakened to Tropical Storm status.

Lester will remain a hurricane strength storm but will pass well to our North. Even so, more rain and winds, but again, not likely to severely impact us (us being Melisa and me — it’ll likely negatively impact many people, but in typical human assholish selfishness, our concern is first weighed heavily in favor of our own well-being). 

Heck, I might even get me some good surf action, something I’ve been trying to get since we made landfall at the end of June. 

So, why do I say two storms are better than one? Well, again thinking of only myself, it doubles my chances of getting photos of a few good waves. But, there’s more to it than that. Specifically, the Fujiwhara effect. 

One aspect of that effect might have had the two storms combine and clobber Hawaii, but the other effect is that the two storms will affect each other and rotate as a unit. That ends up sending one on a southern course while casting the other to a northern track. Which, is exactly what is predicted to happen. 

Sure, I could have found a virgin and tossed her into a volcano as I supplicated to imaginary beings to spare us the inconvenience of dealing with severe weather. We have those here, you know. I mean volcanos, not virgins. Well, I don’t know, there might be a few virgins around, but even if they are, would they admit to it when faced with being tossed into a volcano?

But, I digress . . . the point is I don’t have to rely on superstition and thank this or that imaginary god. I can point to science and say “thanks for explaining that.” Of course, if the hurricanes would have joined and slammed into us, we might have tossed a few scientists into the volcano . . . along with a few priests and/or other spiritual leaders claiming a direct conduit to some supernatural jerk controlling the weather. 

This was yesterday’s view from our rental unit.

Yes, another panorama and if you have a fast internet connection, you can CLICK HERE for the full-size version (10MB).

Here are a few photos at a higher zoom:

Just for comparison, here is a shot taken with the Samsung Note II . . . 

“Yeah, but that was yesterday,” you say.

Very astute of you, Bob, but here are two photos also taken with the Note II just a few hours ago.

And, here are some shots taken with the Nikon, also earlier today. 

It’s 4:10pm as I write this and while it’s a bit hazier and the wind has picked up a bit, it’s still nice out and there’s no sign of inclement weather. Madeline is supposed to pass to our south overnight, and we’ll likely see higher winds  and rainfall sometimes beginning tonight and into tomorrow. We’ll see just how much. 

For them interested in such things, at the bottom of THIS LINK there is a view from one of the webcams on the bay. THIS LINK is for a live cam just below us, on the coast. That’s a camera you can control (there’s usually a queue). THIS camera is in Hilo, currently getting a fair amount of rain. There are other webcams all over the islands; just Google them.

By the way, in the above photos, notice the pool below us. Before I go on, let me tell you about my gecko dissuader; it’s a spray bottle filled with water and with the nozzle adjusted to a narrow stream. It’s usually out on the lanai, and, yesterday, as I was shooting the photos I noticed a couple of bugs flying around. Never one to pass the chance to deal some payback, I practiced my marksmanship trying to hit the bugs in flight. 

As I was shooting in the direction of the pool, I noticed something that had me forget about the bugs and just shoot at the pool . . .  

That was not a great video, so I tried a better sequence . . . 

Not bad, but not great. We were heading out to the gym, so I stopped. 

This morning, I resumed my quest for a decent video but did so using the Nikon, hoping to produce better quality movies.

I would suggest clicking on the “HD” option and expanding to full screen, but that’s like me talking to a wall.

By the way, if anyone knows of decent royalty-free music (instrumental, no hard-anything, engaging, with decent production value) please let me know. I’ve contemplated getting an iPad just so I could use Garage Band and compose my own (hey, if Yanni can wing it, so can I), but it seems like a waste of money as that’s all I would be using it for.

A word about hurricane preparations in the surrounding areas. I don’t see anyone nailing plywood to their windows and I did not see people running around emptying the shelves of local stores. On the other hand, we tried getting gas last night at the Costco (they are about 60¢ cheaper than anywhere else) and not only were all 22 of their pumps in use, but the cars were lined up four-deep behind them. 

We went before our four miles walk this morning and there was no line. BUT . . . the park where we normally walk was closed to automotive traffic (we did like others and parked along the road and walked in). In fact, all the parks and beaches are closed and school was canceled for today and tomorrow (Friday is supposed to be the lull before Lester passes us by on Saturday).  

So, some people are taking the hurricanes seriously, but then, they have to. 

One thing that is very possible, is the loss of power. That’s because most of the wires are above ground and in many places said wires go through fast-growing and fast-spreading trees. There are always crews out cutting branches and trimming canopies, but it’s a lost cause. If we do get some decent winds, it’s likely some of the trees will be hurt and take down some wires in the process. We have emergency supplies, candles, solar rechargeable lights, lights that can be recharged by cranking a dynamo (and they have plugs for recharging phones), and we have extra water . . . but then, we had all that in Colorado, as well.  

I’ll do updates if anything of substance happens, but, for now, we’ll be all cool-like, much like most of the people around us who don’t seem to be running around screaming and tearing out their hair. 

A few random parting photos until next time.

The dessert is a Kona Mud Pie and the view is from the lookout above the Waipio Valley. 

That’s it. This post has ended . . . except for the stuff below.

Edited to Add: I forgot to mention the SmugMug gallery associated with this post. It’s HERE.

WAIT . . . as I wrap this up, I saw that Madeline will likely have little impact where we are. We might get some rain, but most of it will likely stay offshore. Lester is too far to predict and we’ll see if that will impact us.

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