Snow in Hawaii is weird enough for a lot of people, but snow in June?

The UH Hilo observatory on top of
Mauna Kea after snow fell on June 4-5. 

We've had some vicious rainstorms the past few evenings. Last night, an electrical storm just over the mountains that bisect this part of Oahu kept lighting up the sky off in the distance. No sound, just flashes of light revealing the mountaintops.

Apparently this same storm dumped precipitation on the Big Island, and up at the higher elevations of Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa (which reach past 13,000 feet), it was cold enough to fall as snow.

Just over a week ago I was at the 10,000-foot level of Haleakala on Maui, and as the sun went down, the temperature was in the low forties or high thirties, with wind chill bringing it below freezing. Odd weather for late May, or early June, but it does happen.

The view of Mauna Loa from Mauna Kea.

Yeah, I'm one of those weather bores. I remember things like seeing it snow in the summer in California (Yosemite National Park, on June 25 back in the 1990s). The earliest I ever saw snow in Seoul was October 31 one year, and the latest was April 10. If anyone cares.

More volcanic footage of Pu'u Ō'ō

In a follow up to this story on the collapse of Pʻu Ōʻō crater, part of the Kilauea volcano on the Big Island, here's some cool AP video:

Kilauea volcano's Puʻu Ōʻō crater collapses and shoots lava 65 feet

Here's the story on the collapse of Puʻu Ōʻō from the Honolulu Star-Advertiser, the world's premier newspaper for reporting on Hawaiian volcanic events. I guess this might mean more vog will come our way.



Okay, if I was right in front of this with a video camera and saw the ground cracking, I'd be taking off in the opposite direction. And I wouldn't stop running until I reached Old Navy so I could get myself some fresh underwear.

And I sure as heck wouldn't get in a helicopter and fly over it.

UPDATE:
More cool video.

White Christmas in Hawaii?

Two days ago there were flash flood warnings on Kauai. And then yesterday it rained something fierce here in Oahu. As that wet weather made its way southeastward, it dumped a whole bunch of snow on both Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa, the two volcanic peaks reaching 13,796 and 13,679 feet respectively (just over and under 4200 meters) that form the Island of Hawaii, the US's largest island.

This view of Mauna Kea from the National Oceanic and 
Atmospheric Adminstration webcam on top of Mauna Loa 
shows snow on both Big Island mountains this morning. 
A winter storm that moved past the islands overnight 
left several inches of snow on Hawaii's highest peaks.

It's kinda pretty, and if it sticks around, I may be tempted to head back to the Big Island come Christmas (I was there in May), just for the novelty of enjoying a white Christmas in the Aloha State. (Kushibo is too busy with school-related responsibilities to make it to California or Seoul this holiday.)