Weather Words: Kona Low

This segment originally appeared in today's edition of the Morning Brief newsletter. Sign up here to get weekday updates from The Weather Channel and our meteorologists.

Hawaii has had some of the most interesting weather in the country these last few days. No matter which island you are on, you’ve probably experienced something dramatic and something different from the next island.

Possible flooding, damaging winds, threat of isolated tornadoes and heavy snow for the higher elevations. It’s a region of the world that can experience all four seasons on one island.

One of the culprits for all of the action is called a Kona Low. This is a phenomenon that occurs most often in January, although can happen anytime between October and May.

The trade winds across Hawaii typically blow winds from the northeast, however, when a kona storm moves in, it will bring winds from the southwest or “kona” side of the islands, meaning leeward.

These local storms are subtropical cyclones – which are different from tropical systems like tropical storms and hurricanes.

• Temperature: Tropical systems have a warm profile in the atmosphere from top to bottom. Subtropical systems are warm near the surface, but have cooler air aloft.
• Structure: Tropical systems are well organized, these subtropical systems are more lopsided in structure.
• Winds: Tropical systems generate the strongest winds near the center, where subtropical systems can carry winds just as strong from the center outward far distances.

J​ennifer Gray is a weather and climate writer for weather.com. She has been covering some of the world's biggest weather and climate stories for the last two decades.