At a Glance

Snow fell at the highest elevations of Hawaii's Big Island Wednesday into Thursday.That might sound strange, but it's not unusual and it happens a few times each year.A so-called Kona storm brought the snow as well as heavy rain to lower elevations.

Sign up for the Morning Brief email newsletterto get weekday updates from The Weather Channel and our meteorologists.

Snow blanketed a small part of Hawaii's Big Island this week, and while that might seem surprising, it's not as rare as you may think.

Webcams showed a​ winter wonderland in Hawaii on Thursday: Below is an image from a webcam at the top of Mauna Kea on Hawaii's Big Island that shows the snow covering the ground. It's one of from the Mauna Kea Weather Center.

T​he National Weather Service issued a winter weather advisory, forecasting up to 5 inches of snowfall and wind gusts up to 35 mph on Mauna Kea.

(15-min details: For even more granular weather data tracking in your area, view your 15-minute details forecast in our Premium Pro experience.)

Snow covering the ground at the summit of Mauna Kea on Thursday, Nov. 30, 2023.

(Mauna Kea Weather Center)

A​ so-called Kona storm caused the snowfall this week: This same system brought heavy rain to lower elevations of the islands while also slinging its moisture into the summits of Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa, the Big Island’s pair of 13,000-plus-foot volcanoes.

Because air temperature usually grows colder with higher altitudes, the storm produced snow instead of rain on those peaks.

The Kona storm is shown by the "L" representing its area of low pressure in this satellite image from Thursday. These storms bring moist southerly winds into the Hawaiian Islands in cooler months, soaking lower elevations and sometimes bringing snow to the Big Island's peaks.

Snow typically occurs a few times a year on the peaks: Although it between October and April at these highest elevations, it can happen any time of the year. was observed at Mauna Kea in July 2015.

We’ve even seen .

(192-hours: Further beef up your forecast with our detailed, hour-by-hour breakdown for the next 8 days – only available on our Premium Pro experience.)

That means all 50 states can see accumulating snow: Since Hawaii's peaks see snow a few times each year, that means Florida is probably the most unusual state for accumulating snow to occur.

Sign up for the Morning Brief email newsletter to get weekday updates from The Weather Channel and our meteorologists.

Chris Dolce has been a senior meteorologist with weather.com for over 10 years after beginning his career with The Weather Channel in the early 2000s.