Blame the rain on a Pineapple Hopes of a spectacular early season have washed away as quickly as the snow that had accumulated in the valley, leaving Whistler residents more worried about floods than first tracks. While mountain managers and folks who have already purchased expensive ski passes wait anxiously for the snow, meteorologists are blaming the unseasonably warm weather on a fruity air current dubbed the Pineapple Express. As one meteorologist put it: "For all intents and purposes we are in Hawaii right now." Another closet weatherman has suggested the wacky weather patterns are caused by the French government’s underground nuclear testing program, but that phenomenon remains unconfirmed. "What we call the Pineapple Express is basically a series of frontal systems originating east of Hawaii," says Don Tatar, a meteorologist with the Pacific Weather Centre in Vancouver. "This series of fronts has been developing and then easing a bit over the past few weeks." The warm air that moves in over the Pacific Ocean is bearing plenty of rain and Tatar says when the fronts hit the West Coast of B.C. they drive the freezing level up — stalling any hopes of snow. On Monday night, the freezing level moved up to a startling 3,000 metres, Tatar says. Cooler temperatures are expected to roll into the area today as the freezing level drops and rain turns to snow, he says. "The temperatures should drop to more seasonable levels," he says. "There should be snow in the alpine, but the snow in the village might be mixed with some showers."
