The weather pattern so far this season has delivered the most early season snowfall to the pacific northwest. This is expected with a moderate La Nina in the equatorial Pacific Ocean. Below you can see the snow water equivalent percent of normal for the Western US this season. What the hell is 'snow water equivalent person of normal' you ask? Well one way hydrologists track the amount of water an area receives is by looking at how much water is contained within the snowpack. That is what snow water equivalent (SWE) means. If you melted down all the snow, how much water would it turn into. The percent of normal part refers to how much SWE does the current snowpack contain compared to the average for this time of year. As you can see, the pacific northwest is above normal to well above normal, and then the percent of normal decreases as you move South and East away from the northwest US.
(Courtesy of the USDA NRCS)
These maps definitely need to be taken with a grain of salt though. During the early and late parts of winter, October/November and April/May, the snowpack isn't very deep yet, or has melted out alot,
