But he said with confidence the “pineapple express” system will bring significant precipitation with some strong southerly winds. While the storm is still almost a week out, Sweet said models show slightly different timing and rain amounts for the system. It might seem like recent weather has been dominated by new phenomena, but experts say these terms have been around for decades in the scientific world and are simply new to the public discourse as weather becomes more extreme. California Bomb cyclone, atmospheric river, polar vortex: How our weather terminology has grown with recent wild storms