One thing that can overcome all that is a mechanism for injecting cross polar flow into the pattern, with a trough carved into the central US that progresses eastward bringing legit cold. That's basically what happened early last Jan, but ofc that set up requires a lot to go right to get a storm to develop in time. Wet got the cold though.
Cold is building in our source region now but going forward there is no mechanism for it push southward in the presence of a SE ridge. The hope on the guidance to suppress the ridge and shift the boundary just a bit further south was a -NAO period in conjunction with a -EPO. The former has (pretty suddenly) completely disappeared, and the EPO looks to trend positive towards early Feb, with an already -PNA. Ouch.