Snow Day Predictor for Hawaii
Browse snow day predictions for all 20 cities in Hawaii. Select your city to check tomorrow's school closure forecast.
Every city below links to its own live snow day forecast for Hawaii. Find your city in the alphabetical list and click it to check today's snowfall probability and school closure forecast.
About Hawaii
Hawaii is the only state made up entirely of islands, alone in the Pacific Ocean with no land borders at all. It became the 50th state on August 21, 1959, and today holds about 1.43 million residents, according to the latest Census Bureau estimate. The state spans eight main islands, and its nickname, the Aloha State, has nothing to do with weather. Hawaii's economy runs on tourism, military and defense operations centered around Pearl Harbor and Oahu's bases, and agriculture, not winter sports. Most residents live in the 70s and 80s year-round and never see frost, let alone snow. But Hawaii genuinely does get real, measurable snow every winter, just not where anyone lives, on the summits of Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa, both over 13,000 feet, and occasionally on Maui's Haleakala. That makes this page different from every other state here. There are no schools at 13,000 feet, so summit snow never triggers a classroom closure. What actually shuts things down in Hawaii is the same Kona low storm system that can bury Mauna Kea's summit in snow while flooding streets and closing schools in Honolulu the same week.
Hawaii Snow Day Climate and School Closures
How Hawaii's Climate Affects Snow Days
Hawaii's snow lives above 11,000 feet, essentially disconnected from daily life below. Mauna Kea's 13,803-foot summit and Mauna Loa's 13,679-foot summit see measurable snow most winters, sometimes into spring. Haleakala, on Maui, tops out at 10,023 feet and gets snow less often. Sea-level cities like Honolulu and Hilo never see it at all.
On December 4, 2021, the National Weather Service issued Hawaii's first blizzard warning since 2018, as a Kona low buried Mauna Kea's summit in snow drifts up to five feet and closed the access road. (Hawaii News Now)
What Causes School Closures in Hawaii
Hawaii's decision driver isn't snow depth, it's the Kona low, a cold-core storm that dumps feet of snow on Mauna Kea's summit while triggering flash floods, high surf, and damaging wind across the main islands. Schools close for the flooding and wind at sea level, not for snow nobody there ever sees.
Explore Snow Day Predictions Across Hawaii
Hawaii has 20 cities covered by the Snow Day Predictor. Predictions are updated hourly using real-time weather data from Open-Meteo.
Popular Cities to Check in Hawaii
Hilo. Hilo, the Big Island's largest town, sits closest to Mauna Kea's access road. It averages about 127 inches of rain a year, one of the wettest totals in the country, yet never sees snow itself.
Waimea. Waimea, a Parker Ranch cowboy town on Mauna Kea's northwest slope, headquarters the Keck Observatory and Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope. At 2,670 feet, it sits below the snow line but close to the scientists who track it.
Honolulu. Honolulu, the state capital on Oahu, has about 347,000 residents and sits at sea level with no winter weather relevance, aside from the Kona lows that flood its streets while snow falls on Mauna Kea.
Kula. Kula sits on Haleakala's western slopes on Maui, ranging from about 1,600 to 3,600 feet in elevation. Snow reaches the 10,023-foot summit above it only rarely, most recently a documented dusting in February 2018.
Mauna Kea Summit. Mauna Kea's 13,803-foot summit, the highest point in Hawaii, gets measurable snow most winters and sometimes stays covered for days. Ten observatories operate there, and NWS-issued winter storm warnings routinely shut down the summit road.
Mauna Loa Summit. Mauna Loa's 13,679-foot summit, just south of Mauna Kea, collects snow in the same winter storms and hosts NOAA's atmospheric observatory on its slopes. It last erupted in November 2022, its first eruption since 1984.