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| Huge wave crash into Hawaii in November 2013. This weekend, waves that make this look like a bathtub could crash ashore in Hawaii as a very dangerous, rare storm moves in. Image via Weather Underground |
One of the two places I'm talking about - Hawaii - of course won't be particularly snowy, but is having some serious stormy challenged.
The other place I'm discussing - Seattle - gets snow pretty much every winter, but the snow there lately has been much more than they're used to.
HAWAII
It can get stormy in Hawaii, but not like they're expecting this weekend.
In the winter, Hawaii is prone to something called Kona storms. In these cases winter storms in the North Pacific come far enough south to drag cold fronts through or near Hawaii. Ahead of these cold fronts, winds come from the southwest in Hawaii, which is opposite of the usuall east to northeast trade winds.
When the Kona storms hit, normally dry areas of Hawaii get rain. (Usually the trade winds dump rain on east facing parts of Hawaii while western parts of islands behind mountains stay dry.) These Kona storms also increase winds, and dump snow on the highest volcanic peaks, like Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa.
The storm this weekend is odd and a lot more intense than usual because it's coming directly from the north, heading due south toward Hawaii. Which means it won't be paradise in these paradise islands this weekend.
North facing shorelines face very serious surf and coastal flooding. Wave heights just off the northern shores of the Hawaiian islands could reach 60 feet.
The National Weather Service in Honolulu said:"Overall, this low is shaping up to be a high-impact event, bringing mulitple weather hazards and significant threats to life and property.....Anyone with vulnerablle ocean front property needs to complete their preparations for this event as soon as possible."
The NWS said the storm and waves could bring unprecedented flooding and damage to north and west facing beaches in Hawaii.
The winds, as noted will come from an unusual direction for Hawaii. That means winds could rush down the south and east slopes of some mountains, causing high, damaging winds in areas that aren't used to it, including some areas of Honolulu.
Finally, this is a cold storm so by Hawaiian standards, it's going to be frigid this weekend. High temperatures Sunday will probably only barely make it to 70 degrees Sunday amid the high winds and rains. Lows Sunday night in Honolulu will be in the upper 50s, which is ice box weather for that region.
SEATTLE SNOW
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| A rare, snowy mess in Sequim, along the Washington State coast. It snows a LOT in the Cascade Mountains, but it usually rains near the coast. Not this week. |
As of late morning today, Seattle's Sea-Tac airport had gotten 7.9 inches of snow in the latest storm. That's on top of a few inches earlier in the week. Of the snow they've gotten, 6.4 inches fell on Friday alone, the second most Seattle has gotten in a single day.
They're not used to this. Seattle usually would have gotten about 3 inches of snow for the entire season by now.
You can tell Seattle residents don't deal with winter this intense. Grocery store shelves were pretty much devoid of break, milk water and other staples by Friday afternoon. (Despite the snow, they're being re-stocked).
Usually Seattle comes in light flurries that melt quickly. Seattle this month so far is a snowy New-England-y landscape There was snow on the ground three days during last week, and the snow that's there now will be there for awhile.
There are daily chances of snow, or even likely periods of snow through this coming Friday around Seattle.
The snow has really been piling up in the West Coast mountains, too. Down in the Sierra Nevada mountains of California, some resorts got more than seven feet of snow last week. Another several feet of accumulation is expected in the coming week.
It's going to stay cold and snowy in Seattle well into the upcoming week.
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