On This Date: A Maui Snow Record. Really.
Snow in Hawaii sounds like an oxymoron, but it's more common than you think.
From April 9-10, 1968, 57 years ago this week, one place in Maui picked up 9 inches of snow, the heaviest snowstorm on record for that location, according to weather historian Christopher Burt. He told us that summit snowstorm was accompanied by 40 mph winds.
But before you rebook your upcoming Hawaii getaway, there's a chief reason that snowstorm happened. It occurred at the 10,230-foot summit of Mt. Haleakala, a huge shield volcano on Maui.
Snow is actually a fact of life each year over the islands' peaks. Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa, slumbering volcanoes on the Big Island, are the highest points at over 13,000 feet. Given the elevation, sufficient snow covers the summits at least once each winter.
In February 2019, a colder storm produced snow at elevations as low as 8,000 feet, and even some graupel or small hail down to 6,200 feet elevation in Polipoli State Park on Maui.
Mt. Haleakala also holds the state's all-time 24-hour snowfall record, when 6.5 inches blanketed the summit on Groundhog Day 1936, according to NOAA.
(MORE: The Strangest Places It Has Snowed)
Jonathan Erdman is a senior meteorologist at weather.com and has been covering national and international weather since 1996. Extreme and bizarre weather are his favorite topics. Reach out to him on Bluesky, X (formerly Twitter) and Facebook.
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