As I've mentioned before on this blog, it does snow in Hawaii, but only on the tops of the mountains. Blizzards are certainly rare but yesterday a freak storm passed over the islands bringing a Blizzard Watch, as well as heavy rain and thunderstorms which damaged homes and knocked out power. KHNL has many stories, photos and videos of the event. When the sun comes up later today, check the Mauna Kea webcams to see the snow.

COVERAGE FROM OTHER BLOGGERS:
AccuWeather's Paul Yeager | AccuWeather's Ken Clark | Julie's Hawaii Vacation | Francis Pimmel | Success With Todd

Check out the radar image above from yesterday morning courtesy AccuWeather.com RadarPlus (as noted before, the "donut" around the radar is sea spray). See also storm-total rainfall at 3-5" at Honolulu. More radar loops are available for download.* See also this satellite image. Here is a video (NO AUDIO) from Kahala, HI: Winds and Heavy rain hit the island hard (KITV):

http://wwwa.accuweather.com/video/video_inline_launchV3.asp?video=http://qt.accuweather.com/flashvideo/vblog_ferrell/1-VPID12052007historm&category=&thumb=http://qt.accuweather.com/flashvideo/vblog_ferrell/1-VPID12052007historm.jpg&hd=false

This morning, a Blizzard Warning has been issued, along with other severe weather advisories. The Blizzard Warning reads:

HEAVY SNOW SHOWERS AT TIMES... STRONG WINDS WITH GUSTS OVER 60 MPH HAVE BEEN REPORTED OVER THE SUMMITS THIS EVENING AND WILL CONTINUE THROUGH... THE COMBINATION OF THESE WEATHER PHENOMENON WILL PRODUCE NEAR ZERO VISIBILITY IN BLOWING SNOW... MAKING TRAVEL EXTREMELY TREACHEROUS... SNOW ACCUMULATIONS OF 6 INCHES OR MORE ARE POSSIBLE...ALONG WITH SIGNIFICANT DRIFTING SNOW. TEMPERATURES WILL FALL INTO THE 20S... WITH WIND CHILLS AS LOW AS 5 TO 10 ABOVE OVERNIGHT...

The NWS reports that a house was washed off its foundation by a flood in Keokea, where two people were rescued from flooding by helicopter. Several bridges and roads were closed by flooding on Maui and Kauai. Roofs were blown off or damaged, along with trees and telephone poles across the islands.

As far as wind gusts, the NWS says that "THE MEES OBSERVATORY ATOP HALEAKALA RECORDED A WIND GUST OF 79 MPH, WHILE KALAUPAPA AIRPORT MEASURED 73 MPH AND SCHOFIELD BARRACKS REPORTED 70 MPH."

A taxi driver tries to push his car out of the overflow road during Wednesday's storm in Maui Hawaii. According to the County of Maui Officials the storm cause water outages, wastewater overflows and road closures in Maui. Wednesday Dec. 5, 2007.The nasty weather came with a line of heavy showers and thunderstorms that poured 2 to 4 inches of rain per hour onto northeast Oahu starting at 3 a.m. Wednesday. (AP Photo by: Agustin Tabares)

VIDEO CAPTION: Rain came down fast and furious about 3AM and quickly flooded streets. at that same time high winds knocked down trees and knocked out the power to some areas. This video shows the lights still on in Moilili....but as the camera pans it reveals a blacked out McCully area. Firefighters and other emergency responders have been at it ever since.... Here near Kapiolani Women and Childrens a power pole is compromised by the wind... Folks who were on the road at that hour say it was slow going. This was a familiar site around much of Oahu... Fire crews clearing roads of fallen trees. This on Elepaio street in Kahala. When the tree came down it uprooted part of the sidewalk... And just around the corner on Diamond Head road a rock slide and other debris forced motorists to navigate thru it... Despite the mess marathon training continued as runners prepared for Sundays event.

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