The Euro AI had a big storm at 18z and a moderate storm 0z. My sense is it's a good model to use to see which direction model consensus is wrong (it was way North with the 6th system all along). 6z GFS goes back to much more suppressed. Hopefully not the start of a trend
I agree, although it always feels like a good look a week out always fizzles, but when we lose the threat a week out it never seems to swing back the other way. Super frustrating, although generally speaking a reflection of climo more than anything
I agree. If one of us had been in a coma since November and woke up and checked the models, I think they'd be thrilled at what they saw. I do think models backing off from the 8th-12th a bit should give us some pause, but overall the pieces are there to make something happen and that's all we can ask for in a Nina (or near Nina) winter
On the one hand -NAO should continue to kick south. On the other hand, the last minute North trend is real. I think this map represents kinda the expected outcome with lots of uncertainty north or south. Of course plenty of opportunity for sleet or ZR south of that snow map
Often these front end thump storms over-perform with a few hours of heavy snow to start as warm air advection creates instability. Something to watch if the storm is far enough south and doesn't get sheared.
Nice to see the same general look for the 1/10 storm from both the Euro and GFS. Of course the Euro has a great lakes low to keep it from being a much bigger storm