VISIT: Meteorological Interpretation Blog

Hawaii – The Big Island’s Winter Wonderland

Earlier this week, the Big Island of Hawaii received snow over the volcanic summits of Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa. Both summits are 13,000 plus feet above sea level, where they can accumulate snowfall, typically throughout Hawaii’s wet season (October through April). On Monday, 5 January 2026, winter storm warnings forecasted high winds and 5-10 inches of snowfall along the higher elevations of the Big Island of Hawaii. Pictures of the snow peaks can be viewed here, while the United States Geological Survey (USGS) provides a video (below) that captures the snowy summit of Mauna Loa.

❄️ Snow at the summit of Mauna Loa, Earth's largest active volcano, today. Much of Hawaii remains under a flood watch today, January 5, but that rain falls as snow at the high-altitude summit of Mauna Loa (13,678 feet or 4,169 meters above sea level). Several USGS cameras… pic.twitter.com/5XM25FBZp1

— USGS Volcanoes🌋 (@USGSVolcanoes) January 6, 2026

Nighttime visible imagery from NOAA-21 VIIRS captured the snow cover over the peaks on 7 January 2026. Refer to the orange boxes in the imagery. Moonlight illuminates the snow cover while a mix of clouds and emitted city lights are seen scattered across the island.

VIIRS NCC at 1203Z, 7 January 2026

Later that afternoon, remnant snow cover can be viewed by the VIIRS Day Cloud Phase Distinction RGB, that observes the snow in green pixels (seen within the orange boxes) at 375-m spatial resolution.

VIIRS DCPD RGB from 2313Z-2343Z, 7 January 2026