A Look Back: Maui's 'Big Freeze' of '92

Bracing for several consecutive days where temperatures might not crack 80 degrees, long-time Maui residents hark back to the last big not-hot period they remember, in January of 1992.

"I remember going to the original Ohana restaurant in Kihei, and before leaving the house having to put on shoes instead of slippers, it was so not hot," said Jessica Wheeler, 52, of Kihei.

"When the fifth day of sub-80s temperatures hit, we began to wonder if it would ever stop," said Jerome Henderson, 58, also of Kihei.

Weather forecasters predict a series of days starting Saturday where the high temperature on Maui is not expected to go any higher than 79 degrees.

Local business owners are preparing.

"The last Big Freeze, we sold a lot of socks," said JoAnne Steele, who has run an apparel store in Paia for 40 years. "And handkerchiefs. No one on island had any scarves, but when the temps dipped to the 70s, especially when it was breezy, tourists were looking at ways to keep their necks warm."

The unseasonably not hot weather should subside sometime early next week, weather gurus said.

In 1992, the un-hot days lasted six days in total, and many longtime residents still wonder what caused it.

"It seems like the circumstances back in '92 were about the same as now," said Maurie Gorains, a meteorologist with the Central Pacific Weather Beacon based in Kihei. "It was January, and winter, and there were volcanic explosions not all that far away tossing particles into the air, and there was high inflation. It seems like the perfect storm for these non-hot episodes."