I don't want to write a post mortem when the storm hasn't happened yet but the northern stream can be an issue in any pattern. In a nina more so because the stj is typically weaker and the NS stronger. So that stacks the odds that with vorts flying by it's harder to get phasing, or to get the jet to buckle under us. But the NS is always there and bad luck with a mistimed vort can mess up a threat anytime. There is no pattern where every storm will hit. In any winter no matter how good some will cut and some will be suppressed. If this plays out the way it looks it's just bad luck imo. If that upper low set up 200 miles further north we would have been fine.
Finally we need some suppression. Without it we rain. We're not far enough north to typically win without some suppression. But the areal coverage of snowfall is small in a global sense so too much of a good thing and it squashes. Not enough and it cuts. It's just a matter of getting lucky.
This was a pretty good threat. Just too much "blocking". I know some said there isn't but the way the jet is configured right now to our north it's acting like a defacto block. But give this this kind of pattern a few more times and I'll take my chances we hit on one. From range there is no way to say though. The differences at h5 between a D.C. hit or a close miss isn't significant. And the model error is too significant to say from range exactly where confluence will be. Don't know what to tell you other than this hobby is a roller coaster. Try to enjoy the ride.