Yup. Hence the “if” in my post
Its a roll of the dice, but it’s one I’d take every time. Doubly so in this year when otherwise background forcing sucks.
Uber-long range, Paul Roundy keeps saying how his MJO analogs support Greenland blocking by late December and into January. Interestingly, that’s what the extended GEFS show...
^Icon leaves a lot of energy behind the main cutter and keeps the streams separate. That’s what we want for a frontal wave type deal. Gfs made a clear move toward that today, but not enough.
ggem still has a CAD situation on the 16th.
Low heights in AK are never ideal, but the ridging on the west coast combined with a pretty good Atlantic side make that a nice look. There’s also a bigger piece of the TPV farther east. If that TPV was over AK...it would be suboptimal.
It’s the end of an op run, but the 12z gfs shows the sort of evolution we want to see. Cutter brings down an arctic airmass behind it and an active pattern provides a series of strong short waves moving into that cold air. That cutter also acts as a 50/50 low to reinforce the cold. Then hopefully we get a nice snow event before our annual 70F Christmas Eve when the pac puke arrives with Santa.