The Storms Hitting California Start Near Hawaii. So Why Is It So Calm In The Islands? 0 Atmospheric rivers like the “Pineapple Express” originate in the subtropics but can have paradoxical effects on Hawaii’s weather.

Here at the starting point of “the Pineapple Express,” it’s a little hard to imagine being at one end of a 2,500-mile ribbon of moisture that in California fills rivers to overflowing, triggers mudslides and breaches levees.

And yet, it’s right there on satellite maps: sometimes originating right over Hawaii, sometimes as much as hundreds of miles to the north, pointed like a dagger at the West Coast.

Oddly, even as California copes with a seemingly endless parade of “atmospheric rivers,” Hawaii has been unusually calm and dry.

In fact, the contrast is evidence of how the two places are connected meteorologically.

The Storms Hitting California Start Near Hawaii. So Why Is It So Calm In The Islands?