Settled weather continues on the Big Island. Lots of blue sky and some clouds. Today the trade winds are coming back which makes it much cooler. Upper 70s to low 80s An area of more clouds and scattered clouds should reach us tonight and stay tomorrow and maybe Thursday. Then over the weekend the trades disappear as a cold front approaches from the northwest causing the winds to become light and variable.
When the winds are variable, like the last three or four days, the skies clear at night and clouds build up over the interior sections of the island in the afternoon.
So for the last few days we had light winds, the mornings have been clear and cool. Not a cloud in the sky. I leave home at about 7.15am, drive the 11 miles up to Volcano National Park and take a hike along the crater rim trail for about 1 hour. The trail is right on the edge of Kilauea Caldera, straight down a few hundred feet to the black lava rock below. Nice hike past Sulphur banks, steam vents, through some forested areas and Halemaumau crater is erupting a short distance away. The hot lava is not visible at the moment but the fumes create amazing cloud formations at times.
At about 7.30am a flight of Nene geese fly over on their way to graze on distant meadows. Really, you can almost set your watch by them. The later the sun rises the later they appear.
The hike is amazing, no clouds, no tourist just Mauna Loa and Mauna Kea against a brilliant blue sky.
I did bump into a tourist from Minnesota yesterday morning and asked her to take a photo.
Hope I did not stray too far off the weather topic.
). It feels hotter than the 70s though. 
Some heat wave Margaret. 
