The 50th day in the park, and what an anniversary! From the very start early in the morning, we had sort of a crisis, a relatively rare event – the Trade Winds had subsided, and the plume out of the vent in Halema’uma’u Crater was stagnant, mostly going straight up into the air… and then coming back down in the surroundings.

Both Jaggar Museum and then the Kilauea Visitors Center were getting elevated levels of SO2 (not as high as during the Ka’u Desert hike though), and as some of the visitors, especially the elderly and young children or allergic people, could show reactions to the SO2, everyone in the park was monitoring the situation closely.

Soon enough, after Jaggar had passed 1 ppm of SO2, the readings at KVC were also in excess of 1 ppm and one of our Rangers started to feel it pretty bad. And as if that was not enough, the 15 min averaged update of the SO2 monitoring online network stopped working at KVC, so I took a radio and the SO2 badge and got readings myself outside KVC. The instant readings sometimes passed 3 ppm, and I heard over the radio that Jaggar Museum was being closed and the area vacated up to the Kilauea Military Camp (KMC), and the Ranger guided activities were cancelled progressively.

After eleven, as the “evacuation” of Jaggar was in full swing, SO2 readings started dropping around KVC and my badge readings dropped to 0 as soon as I was asked to provide further updates. So I radioed into Dispatch and updated them, also confirming that I would deliver a double-checked reading to make sure the plume had really passed us and tradewinds were picking up again:
“All receivers, dispatch, stand by for bad air quality update” …
(338 standing by)
“This is a bad air quality update for the area around the Visitors Center and Jaggar Museum. SO2 readings in excess of 1 ppm are being recorded and the situation is monitored, 1125”
…
“Volcano Dispatch, 338”
“338 go ahead”
“This is a mobile SO2 badge reading for the Kilauea Visitor Center area, currently a recording of 0.0, will double check that reading is correct and stable, 338”.
“Copy, 338 stand by, 1142”
“Standing By, 338”
…
“Volcano Dispatch, 338”
“338 go ahead”
“Confirming the mobile SO2 badge reading of 0.0 ppm SO2 at KVC, 338 clear”
“Copy 338, 1145”
…

It was a pretty intense morning but luckily not a boat day, which would have really filled up the indoors of KVC.
Nevertheless, people were mostly kept to watch the 11:30 once-a-day Kilauea Iki eruption movie and flocking out just before noon, eager to get going. So the now back-to-normal SO2 reading was really a relief and I decided to take up my summit hike that I had cancelled, announcing it for 1215, and everyone was eager to get on a ranger activity – I had 42 people walking with me this time, and a fun crowd it was too!

SO2 reading at KVC