@poolz1
Just as much as getting the block to form is the location of it . This might be another indication for the winter upcoming , speculation of course .
The map you have here is classic West NAO domain based blocking.
You can see that many posters across the Pond are complaining that over there the - NAO has so far only brought warmth. The East based - NAO is what they desire I believe.
Of note as well, if you look at some 500 mb maps posted around the low solar winters they look like the map above.
Does this repeat in the winter , not sure. But, no longer can those who say it means nothing continue to say that, because we are into early November if that map verifies.
Meanwhile ,solar conditions are pretty dead. Even though the numbers are not on par with 09- 10 we have very low AP numbers, low solar flux and very low sunspots.
This is purely solar minimum winters:
This is solar minimum winters ( below ) combined with a Enso neutral / weak warm , note the change in the NE Pac and the cold extends East to Europe and beyond..
Courtesy Andrej Flis ( @Recretos )