Figure 6. The left map shows the net change in snow water equivalent (SWE) in inches that occurred in February 2023 with blue indicating a net SWE gain (more snowfall than snowmelt) and red indicating a net SWE loss (more snowmelt than snowfall). Note that the color bar at the bottom of the left-side map is not linear and exhibits different increments across the warm and cool colors to represent the values best visually in the map. The green shading delineates mountainous areas as represented in Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) data. The right chart shows the monthly SWE changes recorded at the stations (circles) in each state; the state averages (diamonds) are also shown. Notably, unlike snow cover, the SWE monitoring station averages are not necessarily indicative of the true state averages because the stations are not distributed evenly in space or elevation. — Credit: Mark Raleigh, Oregon State University