Category Archives: Weather

Snow on Mauna Kea

Snow on Mauna Kea seen from Waimea.

Ah Hawaii, a place of golden sandy beaches, warm tropical waters, luxuriant foliage and snow-capped peaks. Wait a minute! Snow? In Hawaii?

It’s true. Here on the Big Island, Mauna Loa and Mauna Kea are high enough to see snowfall most years. People go up there to ski and tube. There’s a local tradition of driving up the mountain, loading a pickup truck with snow, and then driving back to lower elevations for a snowball fight.

This winter’s first snow fell yesterday. Last year, there was a snowfall in July! This photo is from last winter, taken from Waimea, which as the foreground suggests, is paniolo (cowboy) country.

This is one image where I photoshopped something out, in this case a distracting wire trailing above the building’s roofline.

Log yard

Eucalyptus logs at the log yard at Kawaihae.
The Hamakua coast of the Big Island is the first landfall of the northeast trade winds and, consequently, gets a good deal of rainfall. Combined with warm tropical temperatures and good soil, the area is a prime growing area.

One of the crops is eucalyptus trees. The trees grow fast and straight. When they’re harvested they’re trucked to Kawaihae, the port on the west side of the island, to this log yard. They’re stored there until there are enough logs to ship to Asia, which seems to be about every couple of months at present.

I happened to be driving by late one afternoon and was struck by the light on the log ends. As can be seen from the hillside in the background, Kawaihae is one of the driest spots on the island, averaging around 10 inches of rainfall a year.

Agave sisalana

Agave sisalana flowers The flower stem of an agave sisalana
The leaves of agave sisalana are used to produce sisal fiber, which is used in making ropes amongst other things. However, what draws attention are the tall flower stems reaching 15 or 20 feet into the air. Around here, strong winds often blow the stems over, temporarily blocking roads and driveways.