Snow Hits Hawaii in Amazing NASA Satellite Images

Satellite images have shown snow which dropped over Hawaii in a recent winter storm and scattered on top of some of the islands' highest peaks.

During the snowfall, which hit some of the elevated areas of Hawaii in late November and early December, around 5 inches fell on the Big Island's Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa mountains.

While most of the snow soon melted, parts of it were still visible on December 5 via images taken from NASA's OLI-2 (Operational Land Imager-2) telescope which is situated on Landsat 9, a satellite which monitors the Earth's land surface.

Snow on top of the highest peaks in Hawaii is not uncommon, given they are nearly 14,000 feet above sea level. As noted by NASA's Earth Observatory, the Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa volcanoes are dusted with snow nearly every year, with similar events taking place in 2021, 2017 and 2015.

The rest of the chain of islands sees warm tropical weather all year round, and any snow that does fall below 9,000 feet on the rare occasion usually melts away quickly.

The Big Island's Mauna Keo peak, which is around 13,800 feet tall, recently saw nearly half a foot of snowfall in an area where only researchers reside.

"Snow on the Big Island of Hawaii is not all that unusual," AccuWeather meteorologist Reneé Duff recently told Newsweek.

"Some of the summits of the volcanos on this island tower over 13,000 feet, including Mauna Kea. So, at this elevation, the air can be cold enough during storms for precipitation to fall in the form of snow."

The snowfall which hit Hawaii occurred during what known as a "Kona Low," a low-pressure system which also brought blizzards and heavy rain to the area.

When moisture-filled air from the tropical Pacific makes its way up the mountain range, it then precipitates and turns into heavy rain and snow.

Snowfall in some of the elevated parts of Hawaii usually occurs between the cooler months between October and April. However, it can also occur during the summer months, with small dustings of snow also recorded on Mauna Kea in July 2015.

"It snows here every year, but only at the very summits of our three tallest volcanoes (Mauna Loa, Mauna Kea and Haleakala)," Ken Rubin, geology and geophysics professor at the University of Hawaii, told The Weather Channel in 2015.

"The snow level almost never gets below 9,000 feet in Hawaii during the winter, but since these mountains are taller than 13,000 feet, 13,000 feet, and 10,000 feet, respectively, they get dusted with snow a few times a year. It rarely stays on the ground for more than a few days though."