Never lived in the Pacific Northwest.
Good.
Doesn't know early morning fog is counted as 'precipitation',
Rain is not fog, Edwina. Redefinition fallacy.
and thinks it rains 250 days a year there or something,
It doesn't, but it DOES rain a lot. Mostly a light rain with low stratus ceilings.
i.e. a clueless idiot who has never left Mommy's basement.
Mantra 1c. Lame.
Winters west of the mountain range are actually pretty mild.
Depends on the mountain range! Are you referring to the Rockies, the Chocolate range, the Siskiyou range, the Sierra-Nevada range, the Cascade range, or the coastal ranges?
In the PNW, West of the coastal ranges, winters can be pretty wild and windy as well as rainy with low ceilings and lots of coastal fog.
From the coastal ranges to the Cascade range, winters are typically less foggy, lighter rain, but still low stratus ceilings.
The Cascades typically have several feet of wet heavy snow, more thunderstorm activity (including thundersnow storms). This wet snow becomes an ice layer with granular snow forming each night, leading to severe avalanche danger. On I-90 and other major routes through the Cascades, cannons are used to shoot down avalanches before they become large enough accumulation to threaten the roadway.
From the Cascades to the Chocolate range, winters are much colder, with temperatures easily becoming negative. Rain or snow arrives typically via stratus, with usually light snow, but it can get thick and heavy snowfall quite easily.
In the Chocolate range, snowfall is scarcer and much drier, but it can get heavy snowfall quite easily from time to time.
From the Chocolate range to the Rockies, it is typically much drier, with temperatures getting quite cold, but daytime temperatures can get into the 40's or even 50's during winter. Some exceptional areas are Provo, UT, which gets a lot of lake effect snow from nearby salt lake.
The Rockies can get a lot of snow, but it's drier and fluffier, often resulting in 'sugar' snow. A real pleasure to ski in. It CAN make travel through the Rockies dangerous though.
Once out into the Plains (still considered the West), snow is generally very dry and scarce, but can come in very heavy from time to time, making travel dangerous. Temperatures can get VERY cold.
The Siskiyou range is an East-West range, so there is no West of it, other than the coast itself. These areas often get a lot of fog, wind, rain, and low stratus ceilings.