A misconception about Seattle being "very far north." The ocean and the protected bay play a large role in the climate of the northwest coast of the US and southern British Columbia. Those areas, while there is snow in the mountains on a regular basis, have what may be termed a mediterranean climate, and are quite mild compared to the inland areas east of the Cascade and Okanagan Mountains, which form the northern ranges of the Rockies. Between the ocean , the Puget Sound and the inland bays to the west, there is rainforest in much of the Olympic Peninsula, some areas of which get 100 inches of rain a year and are therefore classified as "rainforest." Both Vancouver and Seattle, which are 120 miles apart, have mild winters with (before global warming accelerated) would rarely get more than a few inches of snow a couple of times a year, and more often would get just a dusting so that everyone could point and say "Oh look, snow." Drive 30 miles east, however, into the foothills, and there is abundant winter snow and ski areas. It is almost always possible, at least in the old days of the 1980's and 1990's, to drive toward the coast and away from the snow, although there is often black ice conditions in the deepest part of winter from freezing fog.
The area recently, however, has been getting very unpredictable weather, and right now, snow machines are working around the clock to put snow on the mountains in Whistler to accommodate the Winter Olympics as they are completely denuded of snow. We have several metric tons of snow we could ship them
Most areas around the Capitol have gotten record snowfall for a two day period, the highest of which was in Coleville, Maryland, which received 40 inches. That is the height of a 6 year old!