What is the Pineapple Express?

For us who live in Park City, Utah, the “Pineapple Express” is the name we like to call a meteorological phenomenon characterized by a strong, persistent flow of atmospheric moisture associated with heavy precipitations originating from Hawaii and reaching first the Pacific coast of North America and eventually our Rocky Mountain Region.

We could say that a Pineapple Express is just like an atmospheric river driven by the strong splitting southern branch of the polar jet stream circling around the high pressure system. This causes torrential rains to occur in the region with typically very heavy snowfall in the mountains.

Besides being abundant the snow is also quite humid and can be preceded by high-altitude rain, which is just what we've been receiving in the last few days and is likely to last for one more day or two...