Snowstorm warning in Hawaii but no snow yet in Denver, in unusual December weather: NPR

A snow-free Denver, taken on Friday. The city’s previous record for the most recent first snowfall was November 21, recorded in 1934.

Thomas Peipert / AP

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Thomas Peipert / AP

A snow-free Denver, taken on Friday. The city’s previous record for the most recent first snowfall was November 21, recorded in 1934.

Thomas Peipert / AP

Across the US, the weather is simply weird: Hawaii’s highest peaks spent the weekend under blizzard warnings, while record rainfall drenched the Pacific Northwest, warm temperatures Unreasonably stretches across the Midwest and South, and a major snow drought in the Rockies means Denver has yet to see its first snow of the season.

Snow storm warning in Hawaii was first enacted on Thursday and remained in effect through early Sunday. Follow a forecast by the Mauna Kea Weather Center.

The warning was issued by the development of a major storm system off the coast of Hawaii, which has since stalled on the Big Island, “allowing for widespread fog, ice and snow to cover the mountaintops,” the weather center wrote. .

It’s not uncommon to see snow on Hawaii’s highest peaks, at more than 13,000 feet. The blizzard warning was last issued in the state in 2018.

But it’s worth noting that the Pacific island nation received a blizzard warning ahead of much of the continental United States, according to the National Weather Service.

The only other places with blizzard warnings so far are Alaska and the high plains of Wyoming, Nebraska and South Dakota, along with a small portion of western Minnesota.

Meanwhile, unusually warm weather made the first days of December feel like October or even September in many places – with temperatures reaching 80 degrees in parts of Georgia, South Carolina, Oklahoma, Arkansas and North Carolina, and peaks at 90 in south Texas.

According to AP news agency, 65 meteorological stations across the country set record high temperature on December 2nd.

Warm temperatures combined with dry conditions mean snow and ice levels are much lower than normal in the Rockies and California, where the northern Sierras have accumulated only 11% of a normal year’s snowfall so far, according to the state’s Department of Water Resources.

And in Denver, this season has yet to snow.

“Denver has broken the record for the latest measurable first snow this winter” Wrote the weather bureau based in Boulder. The previous closest date was November 21, which was recorded in 1934.

As the Rockies faced drought, the Pacific Northwest received more rain than usual. In Bellingham, Wash., 31 years old record for most of the fall precipitation (September 1 to November 30) was wiped out by more than 6 inches, an increase of 37%. When it rains there is a higher risk of mudslides.

This weekend, winter will finally arrive in the far Midwest: a winter storm is expected to bring heavy snow to much of North Dakota, northern Minnesota and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.

Part of the reason for the weather’s weirdness is due to La Niña, a Pacific climate pattern that occurs every few years. La Niña typically makes winters in the northern United States and Canada colder and wetter, while making it drier and warmer in the southern United States.

And while scientists don’t usually link any particular weather event to climate change, climate change is creating extreme weather events. more frequent and severe.