This is not a WAR(Western Atlantic Ridge) like last winter but from memory it seems to have a striking resemblance to that very feature that preceded the strat split late last winter.   I am not an atmospheric physicists, but I suspect ramming this type of air into sub-Arctice/Arctic regions does not have a benign influence on the PV(even though this is just at one level of the atmosphere...the PV is a 3D entity of course).   Judah Cohen has a nice animation of the potential split