NASA Satellite Images Show Snow Hitting Hawaii

Satellite images have actually revealed snow which dropped over Hawaii in a current winter season storm and spread on top of a few of the islands’ greatest peaks.

Throughout the snowfall, which struck some of the raised locations of Hawaii in late November and early December, around 5 inches fell on the Big Island’s Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa mountains.

While the majority of the snow quickly melted, parts of it were still noticeable on December 5 through images drawn from NASA‘s OLI-2 (Operational Land Imager-2) telescope which is positioned on Landsat 9, a satellite which keeps track of the Earth’s land surface area.

Snow on top of the greatest peaks in Hawaii is not unusual, offered they are almost 14,000 feet above water level. As kept in mind by NASA’s Earth Observatory, the Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa volcanoes are cleaned with snow almost every year, with comparable occasions taking location in 2021, 2017 and 2015.

The remainder of the chain of islands sees warm tropical weather condition throughout the year, and any snow that does fall listed below 9,000 feet on the uncommon event normally dissolves rapidly.

The Big Island’s Mauna Keo peak, which is around 13,800 feet high, just recently saw almost half a foot of snowfall in a location where just scientists live.

“Snow on the Big Island of Hawaii is not all that uncommon,” AccuWeather meteorologist Reneé Duff just recently informed Newsweek.

“Some of the tops of the volcanos on this island tower over 13,000 feet, consisting of Mauna Kea. At this elevation, the air can be cold enough throughout storms for rainfall to fall in the kind of snow.”

The snowfall which struck Hawaii happened throughout what recognized as a “Kona Low,” a low-pressure system which likewise brought blizzards and heavy rain to the location.

When moisture-filled air from the tropical Pacific makes its method up the range of mountains, it then speeds up and becomes heavy rain and snow.

Snowfall in a few of the raised parts of Hawaii normally takes place in between the cooler months in between October and April. It can likewise take place throughout the summer season months, with little dustings of snow likewise taped on Mauna Kea in July 2015.

“It snows here every year, however just at the really tops of our 3 highest volcanoes (Mauna Loa, Mauna Kea and Haleakala),” Ken Rubin, geology and geophysics teacher at the University of Hawaii, informed The Weather Channel in 2015.

“The snow level practically never ever gets listed below 9,000 feet in Hawaii throughout the winter season, however given that these mountains are taller than 13,000 feet, 13,000 feet, and 10,000 feet, respectively, they get cleaned with snow a couple of times a year. It hardly ever remains on the ground for more than a couple of days however.”