I'm not shocked....I mentioned to Steve, 2014-2015 was the best QBO/solar match I could find...couple that with the subsurface warmth within the ENSO region, and bang. Furthermore, check out the analogs in this +TNH composite that I compiled for the late January/early February period in my outlook?
Here is a composite of seasons that fit this +TNH description over the past decade or so.
I also liked 2012-2013 as analog, but ultimately decided against using 2012-2013 and 2014-2015 because they were too warm ENSOish, but I thought they both had value for latter January into early February. Moving forward I am going to be more aggressive with straying from ENSO in my seasonal analog composite unless it's strong.