Update, afternoon of June 1, 2026: Episode 48 ended abruptly at 1:37 p.m. HST after about 9 hours of continuous lava fountaining from the north vent — and with it, the Halemaʻumaʻu eruption set a record. Episode 48 is the most fountaining episodes ever recorded for a single episodic-fountaining eruption at Kīlauea, passing the 47 high-fountaining episodes of the early Puʻuʻōʻō eruption (1983–1986). Citing reduced ground and aviation hazards, the USGS Hawaiian Volcano Observatory dropped the Volcano Alert Level from WATCH back to ADVISORY and the Aviation Color Code from ORANGE to YELLOW. The eruption is now paused; background unrest continues at the summit and another episode is likely within the next 1 to 3 weeks.

Update, morning of June 1, 2026: Episode 48 lava fountaining began at 4:40 a.m. HST from the north vent inside Halemaʻumaʻu, after 95 precursory overflow events from the south vent that started at 5:41 p.m. HST on May 30. Per HVO, the north-vent fountain reached about 650 feet (200 meters) high by 5:50 a.m. and fed an ash-rich plume that topped out near 25,000 feet (7,600 meters) above sea level. Tephra fell inside Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park and in communities northeast of the summit.

The lead-up followed the rhythm the summit has settled into over the past several months. Precursory low-level activity began at 5:41 p.m. HST on May 30 with small lava overflows from the south vent — the typical opening sequence HVO describes before a main fountaining event. This run of precursors was unusually long and metronomic: 95 separate south-vent overflows over roughly 35 hours, remarkably uniform at 5 to 10 minutes each, spaced 15 to 30 minutes apart, before the north vent overflowed at 3:46 a.m. and ramped into full fountaining. Sustained fountaining from the north vent began at 4:40 a.m. HST on June 1 and built to about 650 feet (200 meters) by 5:50 a.m. That is a tall fountain for this cycle, but not a record height — Episode 44 hit about 800 feet and Episode 43 topped 1,300 feet. What stood out was how fast the summit reached its ceiling: the instantaneous effusion rate peaked near 415 cubic yards (320 cubic meters) per second just before 6 a.m., then the fountain gradually declined for the rest of the day before shutting off abruptly at 1:37 p.m. — about 9 hours start to finish, right in line with the 8-to-9-hour runs of Episodes 44 through 47. All told, an estimated 7.3 million cubic yards (5.6 million cubic meters) of lava erupted, covering about 40 percent of the Halemaʻumaʻu crater floor.

Episode 48 did something no Kīlauea eruption has done before. With this episode, the ongoing Halemaʻumaʻu eruption now holds the record for the most fountaining episodes ever recorded in a single episodic-fountaining eruption at Kīlauea, passing the 47 high-fountaining episodes of the early Puʻuʻōʻō eruption in 1983–1986. (The qualifier matters: other Kīlauea eruptions logged more individual “episodes” tied to shifts in vent location or activity — this record is specifically about repeated high lava fountains.) Episode 47 on May 14 tied that 47-episode mark; Episode 48 broke it. What makes the milestone striking is the pace. Per HVO’s own accounting, this eruption reached 47 episodes in about a year and a half — more than twice as fast as the roughly three and a half years it took Puʻuʻōʻō to fountain the same number of times. The summit has settled into a steady, repeatable cycle of inflation, precursory overflows, a single multi-hour fountain, then collapse and recovery, and it has been running that loop on roughly a two-week clock since the eruption resumed in December 2024.

Tephra — the catch-all term for fragments thrown out by a fountain, from fine ash up to fist-sized chunks — is the main hazard during and right after an episode like this. Most of Episode 48’s tephra stayed within the closed area around Halemaʻumaʻu, but HVO reported sparse pumice up to 1 to 2 inches (2 to 5 centimeters) falling at the Uēkahuna overlook, at Nāmakanipaio campground, and along Highway 11 west to the 34-mile marker. Fine ash and Pele’s Hair settled around the Kīlauea Visitor Center and on communities northeast of the summit — Mauna Loa Estates, ʻŌhiʻa Estates, and Volcano village — with very sparse ash reported as far as Mountain View. The shift happened mid-morning, when higher-altitude winds from the south spread the plume northward over the caldera rim after early trade winds had first pushed it southwest. Pele’s Hair forms when fountaining lava droplets stretch into thin glass fibers in flight, then settle out kilometers downwind. It is sharp, lightweight, and brittle — it tangles in vegetation, screens, and outdoor furniture rather than rinsing away cleanly. If you are in one of the downwind subdivisions over the next few days, keep car windows closed, brush material off clothing rather than rubbing it in, and keep small children and pets out of yards until the fibers have been raked up and bagged.

USGS livestream. The USGS Kīlauea webcams page lists every active summit camera. The V1cam is a pan-tilt-zoom camera the observatory re-aims toward whichever vent is most active, and HVO also runs live summit streams on YouTube during fountaining episodes. In person at the park. Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park is open 24 hours and does not close during summit eruptions. The best sightlines into Halemaʻumaʻu are from Keanakākoʻi Overlook and Uēkahuna, both on or near Crater Rim Drive — though either can cycle closed for tephra cleanup or poor air quality during an active episode. Check the NPS conditions page the day of your visit. After dark, the crater glow is visible from multiple overlooks along the rim during any active fountaining. Park entrance fee: $30 per vehicle, valid for 7 days, per the NPS fees page. Annual and America the Beautiful pass holders enter free.

An active episode is the best-case scenario for an eruption-watching trip, but timing is the catch — these episodes have run roughly 6 to 13 hours from start to abrupt finish, so the fountaining you read about this morning may be winding down by the time you reach the rim. The eruption itself is not going anywhere. Even between episodes, fresh cooled lava covers most of the crater floor, the steaming vents are visible from the rim, and the post-episode landscape is its own geology lesson. Volcano Village sits a few minutes from the park entrance and is the obvious base camp for eruption-watching whenever the next episode arrives. From Hilo it is about 45 minutes to the park; from Kona, roughly 2.5 hours (per Google Maps driving estimates). A rental car is essential — eruption windows do not coordinate with shuttle schedules, and the next episode could start at any hour. For aerial viewing, several Big Island helicopter operators fly volcano-focused routes out of Hilo and adjust in real time to eruption status. You can compare Big Island helicopter tours on Viator.

Activity is confined to Halemaʻumaʻu inside the park boundary. Per the HVO assessment, lava is not flowing into communities and is not threatening homes. The 2018 lower East Rift Zone eruption that destroyed Leilani Estates was a fundamentally different event. Conditions can change, and HVO will update the alert level if rift-zone activity develops. Vog and SO₂ spike during fountaining. A 650-foot fountain pushes a lot of volcanic gas into the air, and it drifts downwind across Kaʻū and the Kona side depending on the trade pattern. People with respiratory conditions should check current air quality on AirNow before heading to the summit, and our Big Island vog guide covers which parts of the island get hit hardest and when. Stay on marked trails and behind barriers. The NPS safety guidance warns that ground near the crater edge can be undercut by lava tubes and unstable. Ignoring closures at an active volcano is how people get hurt. Episode 48 did briefly touch air travel. A taller, ash-rich plume than usual — topping 25,000 feet — combined with a southward wind shift sent a sulfur-and-ash cloud out over Laupāhoehoe on the Hāmākua coast, and a commercial pilot’s report of it led to cancellations and diversions of several morning flights into Hilo (ITO). Summit eruptions of this type usually don’t produce ash clouds dense enough to disrupt commercial aviation — per USGS guidance on volcanic ash — but this one was an exception worth noting. Check directly with your airline if your travel coincides with an active episode.

When the fountain shuts off — and based on this cycle, it tends to end abruptly rather than tapering — the summit reservoir flips into recovery mode. The Uēkahuna tiltmeter (UWD) will track inflationary tilt as magma re-pressurizes the shallow reservoir, and when that tilt approaches the threshold that preceded recent episodes, HVO starts watching for the next round of precursory overflows. Episodes through this stretch have averaged roughly 10 to 14 days between starts, with a range from about 9 to 18 days, so the next episode could land anywhere in that window or push past it. The right tools to keep an eye on Kīlauea: the USGS Kīlauea webcams, the HVO daily updates for tilt and deformation summaries, and AirNow for summit air quality. Our Kīlauea eruption updates page tracks the current USGS alert level and the latest episode summary as this cycle continues.