Yup intensity and track.
The problem this year has been a strongly coupled La Nina.
RECORD troughing off the west coast and a dominant northern stream (again la Nina) has limited the air mass considerably on the east coast.
The sad part, this setup would have absolutely buried us in almost all other setups (any setup other than strong la Nina and El Nino (97/98) conditions.
If this setup happened last March CPK would have EASILY breached 10 inches.
Timing is everything.