B.C. cracks high temperature records with Pineapple Express

The Pineapple Express that arrived on the West Coast on Friday helped break high temperature records across B.C. on Sunday.

Some of the records broken (and the previous highs) were:

• White Rock 15.3 C (12.6 C in 2005).
• Abbotsford 14.9 C (13.5 C in 2005).
• Pitt Meadows 14.3 C (12.8 C in 2014).
• Vancouver 14.1 C (11.8 C in 1992).
• Hope 13.9 C (11.5 in 1984).
• Lillooet 13 C (11.1 in 1931).
• Comox 12.4 C (12.2 C in 1947).
• Powell River 11.9 C (11.6 C in 2003).
• Port Alberni 12.5 C (9.8 C in 2005).
• Whistler 8.9 C (7.6 C in 2014).
• Dease Lake 3.5 C (0.7 C 2007).

The subtropical weather also crossed the Rockies, bringing record high temperatures to Alberta on Sunday, where temperatures hit 17 C in Calgary, smashing the previous record of 13. C set in 2007.

The weather system also brought heavy rain and flooding to many areas in B.C. on Friday and Saturday, dumping up to 98 millimetres on North Vancouver in about 36 hours, but did not actually break any local records for rainfall.

The warm wet weather also dumped a considerable amount of rain on B.C. ski hills, closing some of the those on Vancouver's North Shore Mountains on Friday and Saturday.

The heavy rainfall has meant a boil water advisory issued in December remains in place in the Comox Valley Regional District on Vancouver Island.

Environment Canada forecaster Greg Pearce said that so-called Pineapple Express fronts are not unusual for B.C., with about two or three reaching the province every winter.

The Pineapple Express is the unofficial name given to an atmospheric river of warm moisture-laden air moving rapidly from the open ocean around the Hawaiian Islands to the West Coast. They can hit anywhere from California to Alaska, often bringing unseasonably warm temperatures, torrential rainfalls, flooding and mudslides.