Looking at the tropical forcing forecasts now compared to 5-10 days ago, I think some of the issue is that the west IO standing wave was forecast to quickly diminish, and now that’s no longer true. It’s weakening, but not to the degree that was previously forecast. Similarly, the subsidence over the west Pac (where we ideally want strong convection) is also persisting into early January. The decline of the IOD says that that pattern will get shaken loose, but it seems to be taking longer than expected. I think the MJO phase 6 shown on those phase diagrams is really a mix of the IO standing wave in phase 2 or so and a little bit of convection that starts to fire over the maritime continent in the next week.