It was a big model shift at 500mb in the Pacific. In the Day 10+, I rarely see ensemble means going over +300dm (which is what it was showing in the Aleutian island/PNA region). That coupled, with what I believe is still a strong -PDO in the thermocline and negative ENSO subsurface, showing at least Weak Nina conditions, plus a record streak of 7-years of February -PNA, and I thought that was a good forecast going forward.. It seems the pattern we saw in Dec/Jan ends up having some staying power. Now models backed way off the -PNA ridge in the N. Pacific, but I wouldn't totally discount a trend back toward this in the coming days. It's actually very sensitive because the potential +precip pattern is currently projected to be very close to rain or snow in the Mid-Atlantic... if we see a resurgence of the -PNA the storms will go north and we'll get rain, if the EPS continues to lead they way and we have neutral PNA H5 anomalies and more -EPO, then we might be able to get some snow out of it. I'm still more excited about the wintery threat at our doorstep than the LR models right now.