Extreme Floods, Blizzard Warning: Hawaii Not Playing It's Usual Nice, Tropical Role

Tourists dodging torrential downpours from a destructive
Kona storm in Hawaii this week. Photo via ABC.

 I really hope you didn't book a trip to Hawaii this past week for a tropical getaway.

Unless you like water. And flooding. And landslides. And a blizzard atop the island chain's two tallest volcanoes.  

A Kona storm is a large, slow moving type of system that forms in the central Pacific Ocean  during the winter. 

These storms sometimes feed deep moisture from further south in the Pacific into Hawaii, producing torrential storms, high winds, snow atop the tallest volcanoes and other havoc.

This particular Kona storm was no slouch. 

Before the storm the National Weather Service office in Honolulu wasn't messing around with their flood watch.  They want everybody in Hawaii on alert Here's some of the text of their flood alert: 

"Rain events of this size can cause catastrophic flooding and affect areas that do not usually flood. Low spots in roads will become dangerous and impassable due to severe runoff. Debris in streams and gulches may clog bridges and culverts, resulting in dangerous flooding. Numerous landslides are expected in areas with steep terrain."

I don't know if the storm was as severe as that, but it did cause a lot of havoc. An electrical substation flooded in Honolulu, cutting power to hundreds of downtown buildings, according to the Honolulu Star Advertiser.

Several people had to be rescued from flooded cars, and homes were also inundated in Honolulu. The city received nearly eight inches of rain Monday. Normal rainfall in Honolulu for the entire month of December is only around 2.1 inches.

On Mauna Loa and Mauna Kea, the two highest volcanoes in Hawaii, blizzard conditions enveloped the summits, though such snowstorms have been known to occur occasionally there, since the tops of both volcanoes are more than 13,000 feet above sea level.

Just like pretty much everything else, there's a risk that Kona storms are, or will becoming worse in Hawaii. The Hawaiian islands are getting drier and more prone to drought with climate change. But the occasional storms that does come through are becoming more capable of especially heavy rain, which would worsen flash floods on the island. 

First part of this video from the Today show gives you a sense of how bad Hawaiian weather was this week: