Excellent post. I always love to see you post in here, as the posts are info-filled and never random hype or downerism.
This is actually a nice change of pace. We are usually left to try and analyze why a modelled good pattern suddenly degrades, so to see a bad pattern "degrade" is a treat.
Of course for my actual forum (the SE) this probably just means the difference between warm rain and cold rain, but I am rooting for the MA and especially the NW crew to cash in.