Rain is double good news.
If it happens near or over the eruption during or just after, it washes a lot of the suspended debris out of the air and onto the ground closer to the vent. Not so nice if you live close, but very nice if you live farther out.
And then once the stuff is on the ground, the more rain the better to wash it in or away. I can’t imagine it’s good for storm drains though.
Latest news from HVO is they’ve had some small lava flow / spattering and the next episode is expected to start between today and the upcoming weekend:
USGS Volcano Notice - DOI-USGS-HVO-2026-04-21T06:55:14+00:00.
Right now, 1100ET = 0500HT there’s flames, smoke / steam, and bright glow from both vents.
And Episode 45 is underway! Yaay!
Per USGS Volcano Notice - DOI-USGS-HVO-2026-04-21T22:00:56+00:00 it got going at 0134 HT on 4/23 Fri morning = 0734 ET. As I type (0850 ET) it’s been going a bit over an hour. So for about another 10+ hours you’ll be able to rewind to see the start.
Right now all the action is from the right = north vent as seen on V3 and the closer of the two vents as seen from V1 and V2. Recent updates indicate the fountain is more than 1000 feet tall.
Interestingly, all the precursor flowing came from the other vent; the one doing nothing now.
It looks like V2 has the best view. The fountain is obscured by steam on V3.
And now a couple hours later, so ~3 hours into the episode, the fountaining has declined a bunch. Still chugging right along, but I sorta suspect, on far too little data, that this will prove to be a short-lived event.
The fountain is inclined so it’s aiming roughly towards V2 and you mostly see the lava falling. From V3’s POV which is about 90 degrees to the fountain’s arch you see the upward part and the downward part too. The wind and hence smoke has been all over the place; not a lot of speed and meandering in direction.
Great show and I’m glad v1 and v3 now have sound.
I’m sure the answer is “camera color balance” for why the color of the glowing lava is different between the cameras, but for those who’ve been going in person, which cam would you say has truer nighttime color?
And now, show over. Ended at 10:01 HT = 16:01ET on Sat. ~8-1/2 hours of decent fountaining from the one vent.
I have to say that in the year-ish I’ve been paying attention (THANK YOU @CairoCarol !!!1!1!!) one heck of a lot of lava has been erupted. The area around and downhill from those vents has been thoroughly remade.
The inner Halemaʻumaʻu crater has a long way to go to be filled up, maybe another 10x or 30x what’s been erupted in recent years. But there’s still quite a difference in the before and after pictures.
I’m not sure, but it looks like something is happening with the back vent on the V3 cam.
Big Island Video News put out a summary video of the most recent episode, and it includes clips and photos we wouldn’t have gotten via the live cams.
Now ~1400 ET = 0800HT on Wed it looks like there’s occasional flaming from the left = upper vent as seen on V3. Both vents are outgasssing at a pretty good clip.
As is a third vent off-camera to the right. That last unseen vent is also off camera to the right on V1, V2, & B1. Only V3 shows the 3rd plume.
What’s the link to B1?
B1 seems to be a private media-supported camera installed very near V1.
HVO reports precursor activity of lava oozing out the vent and expects the next episode within a couple of days. Yaay!
USGS Volcano Notice - DOI-USGS-HVO-2026-05-04T22:04:34+00:00.
Looking just now at ~9pm ET = 3pm HT on Mon 5/4 there’s flowing smoke / steam and that’s it.
If I’m going there in July is there a decent chance any of this will still be going on? Kinda sad to think I’m missing this by a couple of months.
Each eruptive episode has been lasting 8 to 24 to occasionally 36 hours. They’ve been recurring every 2-4 weeks. There is some downward trend here where each successive episode is weaker, shorter, and farther apart than the previous ones. Which suggests the whole eruption is slowly petering out. But may have some last big hurrahs in store for us. Or not. No way to know.
IANA vulcanologist, but reading what I have read it smells unlikely that the entire eruption which is reckoned to have started in Dec 2024 will have died out completely by July 2026 two months from now.
But as to whether your visit coincides with the comparatively brief lava fountaining, that’s a taller order. 8 hours every 4 weeks is ~1.2% of the time. Gonna take some luck for that to happen during the day or two you’re in the immediate vicinity. The more flexible your plans for the time in Hawaii, the more you might be able to adjust your order of activities to include visiting an eruptive episode if you got lucky enough to have one occur during your e.g. week there.
As of now, ~8am ET = 2am HT on Tue 5/5, both vents have been oozing intermittently much of the night. Pretty glowing braided river in the dark.
High fountaining is starting right now.
And it’s over as of about an hour ago.
It’s starting up a bit again. Not high fountaining, but enough flame from 2 vents to make it interesting.
The official summary has a nice description. USGS Volcano Notice - DOI-USGS-HVO-2026-05-06T03:29:05+00:00.
You can still rewind the YouTubes to see decent fountaining for a couple more hours.