After I looked at the 00z euro and 6z gfs I thought the same thing.
Hopefully we can cash in.
If not we're waiting till the cold relaxes, which probably puts us into the beginning of February lol.
I know what your saying. Our sensible weather is very different between the 2 models but in the grand scheme there really pretty close overall. Both have a significant Winter storm in the east in the day 8 - 10 time frame.
Most of this snow mean is from next Friday through Monday. About 3".
I don't have the individual members but the mean continues to have a nice slug of moisture through the Tennessee Valley.
Definitely a reason to be cautiously optimistic for next weekend.
Only took 300 hours but it finally gets us.
Although overall the run is colder and there's some close calls prior to this.
This combined with the ensembles in this time frame I think should give some optimism.
It's never easy for snow in these parts lol.
Looking at the GEFS overnight runs we might have to wait till after the 25th for any region wide snow chances. The 23rd-25th looks more cutterish unfortunately.
Long way out and things can change but definitely trended warmer in that time frame.