I might be off here, but the oddity with this blocking pattern is the split Pac jet- where it has been cutting to our south but also straight across Canada, and keeping Polar air well north. We generally don't need major cold for snow when we have a -AO/NAO, but temps are not typically way above normal up in NNE. All the Polar air has been bottled up wayyy up north because of the Pac air infiltration. Difficult to get relatively cold, dry air in place ahead of a storm with that setup, which is sort of the bread and butter of a HL block.