Agreed, I'm looking for the SLP to develop early and SW, to get it to a more mature state by our lat. Based on what we've seen, if that kind of thing happens, the trough is probably sharp and it will take a more favorable track for us.
Also not named Busch, may need to run to the store quickly to pick up a good IPA for the GFS (expecting it to disappoint since its the new dr.no, but just in case )
And the good part about that is the NAM is "closer" to its useful range when were analyzing frames 48-54 hours out vs 84. Of course its just the NAM and we'll give it the weight it deserves, but you like seeing what we saw.
The reality is just because a run doesn't do exactly what it should (these are computer simulations), doesn't mean one way or another its always going to be better/worse. The Euro just happened to make a turnaround later in its run because for the first time it brought our northern piece of energy on the backside more vertically oriented north to south. This made for a cleaner phase and tilted the axis of our trough more favorably. There was no question around h66-72 it was broader.
NAM on the other hand, like you said looked favorable early on and the evolution was traditional for what you'd expect with a clean phase and a sharp trough.
Its not a guess after watching the model runs come out for the last 15 years. Euro looked worse at 66, and better by 84, its that simple. I've seen WAY WAY worse model analysis these past few storms by several folks.
NAM h5 @ 84 is classic for us, finally have a run that shows an h5 that COULD get it done. Wish it was a varsity model, but then again...positive trends