I mentioned that analog to you back a few weeks ago....it was one of my top analogs and December evolved very similarly. January has been much different, admittedly.
See, I don't think a 40" month is that big of a stretch. People like to toss around CC....one consequence of that that I think has been very apparent is the increasing tendency for the atmosphere to enter into really dichotomous "feast or famine" type of time intervals as it pertains to snowfall.
You deal that PV a death blow....let that marinade for a month until the wave lengths begin shortening and it gets interesting really fast.