HONOLULU– This week, snow fell on Hawaii’s highest peak, briefly turning the mountaintop into a winter wonderland. The top area of Mauna Kea on the Big Island got about 2 inches of white powder.
Hawaii is better known for its warm weather, beaches and rainforests. But it is not unusual for snow to fall on Mauna Kea’s higher elevations during the wetter winter months.
The peak is so high – it is 4,207 meters above sea level – that temperatures there can drop below freezing all year round, creating a chance of snow during any month.
This week, an upper level disturbance brought colder temperatures as moisture moved in from the east and moved across the islands Sunday through Monday, said Maureen Ballard, a senior meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Honolulu.
“The combination of cold temperatures and moisture equals snow when it’s below freezing,” Ballard said.
Webcams mounted on the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope showed the ground in white shortly after sunrise Monday. Two days later the cameras showed that the snow had disappeared.
No one lives on top of Mauna Kea sacred to many native Hawaiians. Ancient stories say that Mauna Kea is the firstborn son of the Sky Father and the Earth Mother.
The mountaintop’s limited light pollution and dry atmosphere also make it one of the world’s best places to observe the night sky. Astronomers have built about a dozen telescopes at the summit, leading to Nobel Prize-winning discoveries and some of the first images of planets outside our solar system.