I agree we need significant HL help, particularly for the first half of winter with a moderate Nina. The ens means have been pretty persistent in advertising a -NAO in recent runs so thats a good sign- all caveats apply about verifying in real time. We are also seeing a western US ridge return on the means beyond day 10, and that would be be big in conjunction with a favorable NA in getting some cold aimed more towards the east. My posts about the EPO are wrt to the back half of winter. Assuming the Nina is going to continue to weaken some moving forward, we may see more of a tendency for ridging over AK at times later in winter. It would be great if the NA remains generally favorable throughout, and maybe it will, but recent history says otherwise. If a SWE does occur, who knows how that may shuffle things in the troposphere down the road, or if it will have any impact at all.