Blizzard in Hawaii!

[parrothead]

This is no joke! I work for NOAA in Honolulu and we recieved warning to expect a fairly big storm here in the Hawaiian islands. Usually storms consist of lots of wind, rain, and big waves. However, the crazy thing is that as a little sidenote to the weather report, there was a warning to people working on the top of Haleakala (mountain on Maui at 10023ft) and Mauna Kea (mountain on Hawaii at almost 14000 ft) to expect -17degree F temps and BLIZZARD conditions! Hmm, maybe I can go snowboarding this weekend!!!!

[King Cobra]

According to the NOAA forecast, there's just a lot of flooding and thunderstorm activity going on...

http://www.prh.noaa.gov/pr/hnl/
Haleakala National Park (http://www.srh.noaa.gov/data/forecasts/HIZ003.php?)

-17ºF ?? That's freaky. Even for Hawaii's mountains, I've never heard anything here going that cold.

So when it happens (I trust NOAA more than nearly all other stations, that's why I say "when" and not "if"), brake a leg...or not. :eek:

[Thomas Veil]

Heh. That's pretty wild. Let us know what the temp is like along Hawaii's beaches. This has the potential to p.o. a whole lotta vacationers.

[Rower_CPU]

Mauna Kea gets snowstorms periodically, or did when I lived in Hilo. Kids would drive up with pickups and bring back snow for the world's shortest snowball fights. :p

I'd love to see some pictures after this one.

[Silverhair]

I live on the Hamakua coast (the north coast of the Big Island). We have a tradition of going to the summit of Mauna Kea on Jan. 1st for a day of playing in the snow at 14,000 ft. This year was the first in four that snowed sufficiently. It is so fun to live on a tropical island and get to take the kids for a snowball fight. This storm could dump another 3 feet of snow up there..

[parrothead]

the temperature along the beaches here in Honolulu feels like a freezing 68 degrees! Brrr, I had the heat on in my car driving to work this morning.

[MongoTheGeek]

Originally posted by parrothead
the temperature along the beaches here in Honolulu feels like a freezing 68 degrees! Brrr, I had the heat on in my car driving to work this morning.

I work for AccuWeather (http://www.accuweather.com) so I am not surprised about the snow in Hawaii. New people are surprised the first time they see the severe winter weather advisories in Hawaii and realize its not a test message like the Tsunami warnings in Idaho. Mona Kea is the worlds tallest mountain (measured from the base). Above the water its still impressive.

As for 68 degrees being cold. I would almost expect to see girls in bikinis at that temperature.

[parrothead]

"As for 68 degrees being cold. I would almost expect to see girls in bikinis at that temperature."

Ahh, but if you lived year long in 85 degree weather even a small dip in temperature can send the locals here scrambling for parkas. The only people in bathing suits either have wetsuits over top or are visiting from somewhere cold.

You will also hear people here complaining that it is unbearably hot when the rare 95 degree day comes along. I grew up in Dallas where we had 40-50 days straight of 100+ degree temps but now that I have lived in HI for a while 95 feels like the inside of an oven!

Poor parrothead having to put up with no cold or no hot weather. :(

;)

[saabmp3]

Haha, try upstate NY. It got down to -41 here this winter. Or my friends house in Maine. They were down to -60 without the windchill. Now that's jsut wrong.

BEN

[agreenster]

Dude. -60 is COLD.

Where I live, the lowest it got was about -5 to -10 (without windchill) and thats so cold it freezes your face/nostrils/hair the instant you walk outside. It floors me everytime the weather gets this cold, yet animals still manage to survive.

68 degrees.......havent seen that since September...

[Doctor Q]

I always wanted one of those "Ski Hawaii" patches for my jacket!

I did go up Haleakala once and find absolutely no view up there, but that was due to overcast conditions, not a blizzard.

[agreenster]

Originally posted by Doctor Q
I always wanted one of those "Ski Hawaii" patches for my jacket!

I did go up Haleakala once and find absolutely no view up there, but that was due to overcast conditions, not a blizzard.

Must say Im VERY suprised, because Haleakala is 10,023 feet, higher than the cloud line. What a view it was from up there....looking out over a sea of clouds...

[Doctor Q]

Originally posted by agreenster
Must say Im VERY suprised, because Haleakala is 10,023 feet, higher than the cloud line. What a view it was from up there....looking out over a sea of clouds... I checked with somebody else who was on that fateful trip to see nothing at all, and he remembered better than I did. It was Waimea Canyon on Kauai that had no visibility. My trip to Haleakala on a different occasion was much more successful and scenic.

[tpjunkie]

Originally posted by saabmp3
Haha, try upstate NY. It got down to -41 here this winter.


no kidding...that week where it didn't make it about 8 below without the windchill just plain sucked.

[Freakk123]

-17F in Hawaii? What is the world coming to? AHHH!!! Thats colder than it been here around the NYC Metro area in years!