Worst Wintertime Pineapple Express in 50 Years?

Gee, I wonder if there is some way we can blame all of this snow-killing rain on my SUV? After all, I have been using it to carpool my sea level- living ski friends (and their gear) up to the mountains every opportunity possible this spotty winter.Just wondering?!

anyone up for dirt skiing this weekend? <br><br>

An article in Time Mag implicates this PE is due to MJO, not El Nino. "Madden-Julian Oscillation is a globe-girdling disturbance that sweeps across equatorial waters at intervals of 30-60 days, says NOAA climatologist Wayne Higgins". Has me puzzled!!<br>DB

<br><br>Hey, I'm surprised that Time Mag would talk about MJO, it's rarely mentioned in the mainstream media. ( link to Time article )<br><br>But MJO is definitely an important factor in Pineapple Expresses, especially in determining what latitude along the West Coast any particular PE event is likely to dump the most rain. I found this page a few months ago, it's the best non-technical discussion of MJO effects I've found on the web, and it includes a link to the figure below: www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/intraseas...traseasonal_faq.html <br><br>That page states that MJO tends to be suppressed during El Nino, but since we're only in a weak-moderate El Nino, that suppression appears to be limited right now. A Google search will dredge up a few other interesting MJO pages, mostly a bit more technical, but some have pretty pictures, too.<br><br><br> <br>

I think it's simply Sky's fault, but since snow levels are now forecast to drop starting Monday, we have to give him credit for that as well. Maybe from now on all storms will start as rain but turn to light powder thanks to him!

;Dyeah, I'm holding Sky accountable too!<br>BWWHAHAAA!

Amar - you mentioned getting access to past NWAC weather data. It so happens I have been organizing our past years of data hopefully it will be ready come spring. We will probably make CD's available. The data goes back to the late 1980's.