Sure, mg, people do it all the time, as in "….the weather here in the Northwest…." Further adding to muddles in terminology, Northwestern University is located in Evanston, Illinois. Illinois and the surrounding area used to be thought of as "the Northwest" and some Easterners still think so.

Anything west of the Mississippi is "Terra Incognita – Here be Dragons!"

Officially, Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and Montana are referred to as the Pacific Northwest states, but colloquially, people shorten it to "the Northwest" all the time.

Don Firth