@mappy
Moving this here for longer comment so as not to clutter the storm thread -
I think DC area and either side of DC to the east and west is in a great spot in either a "souther" or "norther" scenario. They've been progged around 6 inches at worst in most every run save one. Our area and the area south of DC have varied between "hell yes" and "hell no" from run to run for days. My snow-missing PTSD has kicked in watching the Euro especially for us northerners.
Which is to say, and this is why I moved this to banter, you are entirely correct that snow is an IMBY game and the board shows its teeth in winter storm set-ups.
I just wanted to pause for a minute because some really good posters on here from the DC area really don't appreciate how long between drinks up this way it has been from a legit flush hit winter storm warning level storm. Six years by my count for my area. We were close to five inches in of the January storm in '24, but I don't think I quite got there at my house. The January 2022 miss was hilariously painful (watching Ji complain for weeks and then get ten or so inches of powder while this area got 1/2 an inch of dust sucked) - so, in any event, "it always comes north" stuff that gets blithely posted tends to rankle. It doesn't. In some set-ups, sure. In others, NOPE. This storm and its modeling shows it is one of those storms that is amenable to the best lift being forced south of northern parts of the forum - and THAT is something which we have seen over and over again for years. And, not just in winter, happened a LOT in the last few springs and summers (just that doesn't get commented on as much).
In any event, as always, hoping for a path to an area-wide win (or at least as much of the area as possible), but seeing "thread the needle" from some of the red taggers with respect to the final pieces harshes my mellow up this way, and the Euro is really piling on the bad vibes.
Again, I think DC folks and west and east of there are in a great spot in most scenarios. The eye of their needle looks appreciably larger than the eye of the needle for the Chill-area folk or the folk up our way (our best runs are the Chill-area's worst and vice versa). The tension in the posting on model runs is that. So when someone posts "norther" or "souther" doing drive-by PBP it really isn't helpful without calibrating that comment through their area.
Good luck all, except, really, I mean, good luck to my area especially. We are overdue up here. One of these storms will not get shunted, I hope. Perhaps this one.