Late
in the week of February 6-13, 2010, the Florida Panhandle got some
snow. This led to a lot of articles in the media along the lines of "OMG
there's snow on the ground in all 50 states at once!" and a similar
amount along the lines of "OMG there's snow on the ground in 49 of the
50 states, with Hawaii being the only exception." Hawaii does get snow,
of course - on Mauna Kea, Mauna Loa and rarely even Haleakala - but
there hadn't been any snowfall of consequence since December.
Having
worked atop Mauna Kea for years, I know that the terrain can be
conducive to snow sticking around, especially on the north slopes of
cinder cones where it gets less sun. And I knew that earlier in the
week, I had seen a few patches of snow remaining in a basin on the north
side of the Subaru Telescope, where I work, and the adjacent W.M. Keck
Observatory. On the afternoon of Saturday, February 13, between 15:21
and 15:28 local time, I was able to take a series of photos including
this one, using an iPhone 3G.