Here's a question...this is EPS 6-10 day mean.
See how that ridge is oriented in the GoA...how it extends into AK from like a SSW to a NNE orientation?
(Excuse my drawing, but if that ridge was configured more south to north and positioned slightly differently, would the result of the central US trough be farther east with the east ridging now into the Atlantic...but how would that pool of below-average heights (assuming that's the Azores high_ behave?
Also, does this Azores high play any significance to how the pattern is configured across the east? When the NAO is positive this feature is always going to be weaker than average (showing up as below-average heights)...I feel like anytime you have a trough centered in the central U.S. and you have these below-average heights with the Azores high, the response in the middle has to be a ridge.