If nothing else, one positive to take from this year is that we had what appeared to be an impactful trip through the cold phases and then it looks like it's going to zip through the crap phases at a decent clip. It had every excuse to blow up in phase 6; it's a Nina February after all. And if we recall, that's exactly what the GEFS was predicting not long ago, and it probably wasn't a coincidence that the GEFS was also predicting a +100000 dm SER that had Chuck drooling.
I don't think this could have happened in 2022, or even last year.