When it gets cold every winter, Hawaii becomes an increasingly popular retreat.
But climate experts in the Aloha State told USA TODAY on Monday that tourists cannot escape climate change – not even on the islands, where 60-foot waves and wind gusts up to 191 mph were part of a fierce weekend storm that downed power lines and felled trees.
"There's no place on the planet where (people) can expect to see conditions as they have been in the past," said Chip Fletcher, an earth sciences professor at the University of Hawaii at Mānoa and vice chair of the Honolulu Climate Change Commission.
From travelers to hotel businesses, Fletcher said everyone should factor climate change into their planning because extreme weather events will increase everywhere. On Sunday, for example, the Hawaii Tourism Authority advised visitors not to go hiking, swimming, snorkeling and surfing because of dangerous conditions.
This weekend's damaging storm, Fletcher said, is a good example of an extreme weather event that is more likely to occur in a warmer world. Climate change set up the conditions for the extreme waves, as well as what officials said could be the lowest-elevation snowfall ever recorded in the state.
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