Northwest Weather Nemesis Delays Ski Season

This year’s ski season is getting off to a slow start thanks to an old skiers’ nemesis: the pineapple express.

Unusually warm and wet weather has been washing away the snow on the region’s ski hills. Fresh snow finally started falling over the weekend.

But not before some innocent pineapples had to die.

The Crystal Mountain resort posted a video on its Facebook page last week showing pineapples being executed by bow and arrow, axe and firing squad.

Crystal Mountain isn’t the first ski resort to try to dispense with a pineapple express by disposing of pineapples. The ritual slaughter appeared to have been rewarded with two feet of snow over the weekend, and Stevens Pass also said it is open for skiing.

However, the struggle for deep powder is not over. National Weather Service said there’s warm water over the central Pacific, and when that happens, there’s less snow in the Northwest.

“We tend to get a little less snow in the mountains than we normally would in other years,” said Jay Albrecht, a meteorologist for the weather service. “So we would expect to have less snowfall this season than during an average season."

The situation is far from dire. The emerging weather pattern is not strong enough to carry the name El Nino. But it will hang around for much of the ski season.

“It doesn’t mean you’re not going to get snow,” said Albrecht. “It just means a lot less than normal.”