COURTESY KECK OBSERVATORY
In this frame grab made from Keck Observatory video, snow is seen Saturday on the summit of Mauna Kea on the island of Hawaii.
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Snowdrifts are blanketing the summits of Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa as temperatures remain below freezing, and a winter storm warning was in effect through early this morning.
“We had some snow last night, and we are expecting more today,” said Maureen Ballard, meteorologist with the National Weather Serv-ice in Honolulu, said Sunday afternoon.
“It’s definitely a dangerous situation at the summit itself,” she said. “Some of the sites up there are reporting some wind speed of 25 to
30 mph. That’s why everyone has kind of evacuated.”
The road to Mauna Kea’s summit is closed. The winter storm warning applied to both summits above
11,000 feet through 6 a.m.
today.
Without a weather station at Mauna Kea, it’s tough to gauge how much snow fell over the weekend, Ballard said.
“It’s kind of hard to tell with all of the clouds that are over the Big Island today,” she said. “A lot of the cameras that are up there are iced over, making it even more difficult.”
Elsewhere in the state, a flash flood watch was in effect for much of the weekend.
Forecasters expect a short break from the unsettled weather today and Tuesday, although scattered showers are possible, especially over Hawaii island. Wetter weather is likely to return about midweek.