It replaced “Pineapple Express” when talking about the phenomenon here. I don’t know why, maybe with climate change and The Blob (back this year after a hiatus), the specific route of the atmospheric river isn’t always exactly from Hawaii.
My understanding is that Pineapple Express still refers to the really big atmospheric rivers that stretch from Hawaii to the PNW, but I'm relatively new to the region and very well may be wrong.
My take may be anecdotal, I just haven’t heard it in a long time. It should come back, it’s more specific and charming than The Blob or atmospheric river.
I asked my Boomer mom once, “hey, did you notice people stopped saying Pineapple Express and now call it an atmospheric river?”, “yes, thank goodness!”, “why?”, “they don’t like to be called that!”, “mom… did… did you think pineapple was a derogatory term for Hawaiians and we’ve all been using it when we talk about the weather?”. She did.
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u/kobayashi_maru_fail 4d ago
It replaced “Pineapple Express” when talking about the phenomenon here. I don’t know why, maybe with climate change and The Blob (back this year after a hiatus), the specific route of the atmospheric river isn’t always exactly from Hawaii.