Fantastic post by @FXWX in the New England thread…. Great perspective on the Winter…
“Folks forget or choose not to remember the El Nino discussions during the early fall that strongly suggested December would likely run the risk of a being an above normal month with thread the needle events for any shot at meaningful snow threats. In a lot of ways this December is playing out pretty much according to classic past El Nino years...
The same long-range outlooks the pointed out the risk of a warmer than normal December, also pointed toward the pattern improving once into or just beyond the Xmas holiday week. I am in that camp even if the shift to a more favorable setup waits until early January. This December pattern is nothing like last December and the global pattern is very different. I do not expect the pattern to flip into an unusually cold regime once into early January and I don't think one is needed to see significant Northeast snows. As we all know, pattern transitions are commonly a bit later the originally thought so no one should be surprised if the more favorable pattern waits a week or more later than originally projected.
I don't think anyone is talking about a Jan 2015 type of flip, but I expect the large-scale NA pattern will grow more favorable for significant storm action moving into January, even if the regional temperature pattern is close to normal or a bit above normal. The pattern laid out by 40/70 is a very realistic path forward and one that fits where I think the long-range modeling seems likely to go: In short, more western ridging, an active Pacific jet under-cutting Western ridging and enough high latitude blocking to allow seasonably cold air masses to visit on a regular basis...”