To be fair, they did OK on 2012-13 and 2013-14 even though they hosed 2009-12. NAtl blocking and the one-eyed pig...the two variables hardest to predict.
More Bering Sea than AK/NWT proper though...still tending toward higher heights in E AK/Yukon relative to Bering Sea. Let's keep it from getting any farther E though.
hmmm, add in all the low salinity ocean water from melting Greenland...thermohaline slowdown...what that does to the dipole or tripole in the Atlantic...anybody's guess.
Elevation may be a factor. Don't know how much of one because not familiar enough with deformation band dynamics to know how much the surface plays into it, but have seen the same thing with snow squalls dying as they get into the Boston basin