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I wouldn't call them snow caped mountains. Calling a mountain "Snow Caped" implies that snow is present on the mountain for most of the year.

There are 3 mountain peaks on the big island where snow can occur, all of them over 13,000 feet above sea level.

The air gets heated by sunlight that hits the Earth's surface first, then radiates into the atmosphere. Therefore the farther away from the Earth's surface you get the colder air temperature becomes.

If you have ever flown on a airplane, sometimes you can look out the window and see ice crystals forming. This can happen even if you are flying over Texas in the summer where ground temperatures can reach over 110F.

In large storms, especially during the winter clouds can have ice crystals form in the higher layers even when its raining in the lower levels.

When those storms pass over high mountains, the peaks receive snow instead of rain as precipitation. This can happen in Hawaii during certain storms on average several times each year.

The elevation where this occurs depends on the mountains distance from the poles. For instance, if snow could occur at 5000 feet in Alaska, then it could occur at 10,000 feet in Colorado and 13000 feet in Hawaii and 15000 feet in southern Mexico. (numbers not exact just estimations to give you the idea)

Hope that helps.

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12y ago

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