Final update, afternoon of April 23, 2026: Episode 45 ended at 10:01 AM HST after 8.5 hours of continuous lava fountaining. USGS HVO dropped the Volcano Alert Level from WATCH back to ADVISORY and the Aviation Color Code from ORANGE to YELLOW. The summit is now in its normal between-episode pause. If the cycle holds, precursory activity for Episode 46 will start in the coming days to weeks, and HVO will post a forecast window before the next fountaining event.
Earlier update, morning of April 23, 2026: Episode 45 lava fountaining began at 1:34 AM HST at the summit of Kīlauea. Activity was confined to Halemaʻumaʻu crater inside Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park, which stayed open with viewing from designated overlooks. Northerly winds directed volcanic gases and tephra south — downwind communities in Kaʻū and Kona were warned to watch for vog.
Earlier update, evening of April 20, 2026: USGS HVO raised the Kīlauea alert level from ADVISORY/YELLOW to WATCH/ORANGE after precursory activity picked up at Halemaʻumaʻu.
Kīlauea is waking up again. Precursory low-level activity for Episode 45 of the ongoing Halemaʻumaʻu eruption began around 7:46 p.m. HST on April 20, 2026, with several lava overflows from the north vent — the classic opening move before sustained fountaining. The USGS Hawaiian Volcano Observatory had a forecast window of April 21 to 26 for the next fountaining event, and the summit telegraphed the signal all week: since Episode 44 ended on April 9, the Uēkahuna tiltmeter tracked roughly 14.9 microradians of inflationary tilt, with steady glow from the south vent overnight and intermittent glow at the north vent. Sustained fountaining followed on April 23.
The pattern from Episodes 43 and 44 held again: precursory overflows, then within days, full lava fountaining from one or both vents inside Halemaʻumaʻu. Episode 45 crossed into sustained fountaining at 1:34 AM HST on April 23, about 55 hours after the first overflows.
