All Aboard The Pineapple Express!

If you’ve got a ski trip planned in North America this winter, you’ve probably been keeping an eye on the weather. If you’ve been keeping an eye on the weather, you’ve probably noticed a few terms and key words on repeat throughout the season to describe what is shaping up to be a tricky one for pow chasers and ski resorts alike. Some of you may even have some questions about what you’re hearing and reading, like who is El Niño and where is this Pineapple Express? Let us explain…

Almanacs and meteorologists have been predicting an El Niño year for quite some time, so this warm, precipitous winter is not taking many of us by surprise. Typically, an El Niño is characterized by lots of moisture and above-seasonal temperatures during the winter months in the northern hemisphere, but triggers vary from season to season and are actually the topic of some debate among climatologists. The gist of it essentially lies in weakening trade winds from the South Pacific that allow tropical weather to escape and travel to South American coastlines which, in turn, create a chain reaction of events as far north as Canada and even Alaska.

One of the most common effects of an El Niño winter is the weather system referred to as a Pineapple Express. The name itself has a nautical context in which sailors and merchants would take advantage of strong easterly winds from the Hawaiian Islands to the coast of North America, shortening their journey by several days if not weeks. While it may be a real treat for seafarers and pirates, however, skiers and snowboarders dread the Pineapple Express. At the onset it promises to bring plenty of snow, but the storm cycle inevitably packs a soggy punch as the freezing level spikes and the snowpack gets washed away. Perhaps the worst feature of all is the staying power of warm winter storms as the systems are almost always sluggish and slow to dissolve. 2015 is barely a month old, and already it feels like one big, messy storm.

While this has been a particularly tropical winter with higher than average temperatures and lower than average snowfalls across most of the Pacific Northwest, British Columbia does typically endure a few of these systems every year, and an El Niño rolls around once or twice per decade. It happens.

The good news is that all is not lost. While some resorts on British Columbia’s Lower Mainland may be making headlines and begging for mercy, many of us – particularly those of us fortunate to have helicopter access into the alpine – are still having a fairly typical winter. The larger the tenure and the more variable the terrain, the better the options for skiers and snowboarders as the snowpack at higher elevations continues to provide good lines and fresh tracks on a regular basis.

Of course, sometimes the best laid plans rest entirely upon Mother Nature’s fickle little whim. If you do find yourself riding the Pineapple Express this season, you can rest assured you’re not the only one. You may as well climb aboard, settle in and make yourself a piña colada. After all, it could be worse. It could be summer.