Climate
Mauna Loa has a tropical climate with warm temperatures at lower elevations and cool to cold temperatures higher up all year round. Below is the table for the slope observatory, which is at 10,000 feet (3,000 m) in the alpine zone. The highest recorded temperature was 85 °F (29 °C) and the lowest was 18 °F (−8 °C) on February 18, 2003 and February 20, 1962, respectively.
| Climate data for Mauna Loa slope observatory (1961-1990) | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Year |
| Record high °F (°C) | 67 (19) |
85 (29) |
65 (18) |
67 (19) |
68 (20) |
71 (22) |
70 (21) |
68 (20) |
67 (19) |
66 (19) |
65 (18) |
67 (19) |
85 (29) |
| Average high °F (°C) | 49.8 (9.9) |
49.6 (9.8) |
50.2 (10.1) |
51.8 (11.0) |
53.9 (12.2) |
57.2 (14.0) |
56.4 (13.6) |
56.3 (13.5) |
55.8 (13.2) |
54.7 (12.6) |
52.6 (11.4) |
50.6 (10.3) |
53.24 (11.80) |
| Average low °F (°C) | 33.3 (0.7) |
32.9 (0.5) |
33.2 (0.7) |
34.6 (1.4) |
36.6 (2.6) |
39.4 (4.1) |
38.8 (3.8) |
38.9 (3.8) |
38.5 (3.6) |
37.8 (3.2) |
36.2 (2.3) |
34.3 (1.3) |
36.21 (2.34) |
| Record low °F (°C) | 19 (−7) |
18 (−8) |
20 (−7) |
24 (−4) |
27 (−3) |
28 (−2) |
26 (−3) |
28 (−2) |
29 (−2) |
27 (−3) |
25 (−4) |
22 (−6) |
18 (−8) |
| Precipitation inches (mm) | 2.3 (58) |
1.5 (38) |
1.7 (43) |
1.3 (33) |
1.0 (25) |
0.5 (13) |
1.1 (28) |
1.5 (38) |
1.3 (33) |
1.1 (28) |
1.7 (43) |
2.0 (51) |
17 (432) |
| Snowfall inches (cm) | 0.0 (0) |
1.0 (2.5) |
0.3 (0.8) |
1.3 (3.3) |
0.0 (0) |
0.0 (0) |
0.0 (0) |
0.0 (0) |
0.0 (0) |
0.0 (0) |
0.0 (0) |
1.0 (2.5) |
3.6 (9.1) |
| Avg. precipitation days | 4 | 5 | 6 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 55 |
| Source: NOAA | |||||||||||||
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