Record rainfall on Thursday should be history as the Memorial Day holiday arrives, but forecasters warned that the risk of more rain or showers isn’t leaving the region completely. Spokane International Airport broke a 112-year-old rainfall record for May 27, with close to an inch of rain as of 9 p.m. The previous record was 0.84 inches in 1898.
A period of wet weather has descended on the Inland Northwest today as a new Pacific low pressure area moves onshore and circulates moisture northward from Oregon and California.
A short spell of warmer temperatures is expected today as clouds begin to build in advance of a new Pacific storm that should bring showers from Wednesday through Saturday.
Freezing temperatures set records across the Inland Northwest on Monday morning and left gardeners downcast from damage to tender plants. Spokane International Airport hit a record low of 32 just before dawn, breaking the old mark of 35 in 1975.
Bill and Marie Black were in their living room watching television Sunday night when an unexpected bang shook the entire house on Spokane’s North Side. A car slammed into the corner of their home not far from where they were sitting about 10 p.m.
The number of travelers heading out this Memorial Day weekend should increase for the first time since peaking five years ago, a sign that the nation’s economy is rebounding. The AAA auto club is forecasting a 5.4 percent increase in travelers going 50 miles or more from their homes this weekend. A total of 32.1 million people are expected on roads or rails and in the skies.
A heavy band of rain showers moved from south to north across the upper Columbia Basin late this morning, producing up to a quarter inch of rain per hour and reduced visibilities.
Work is ramping up for the season on the east side of Snoqualmie Pass, where the state Department of Transportation is in the middle of a series of major improvements to Interstate 90. Motorists may encounter some delays, but the agency said it has planned construction to minimize impact on traffic, especially during the summer driving season that begins the last weekend of May.
Work is ramping up for the season on the east side of Snoqualmie Pass, where the state Department of Transportation is in the middle of a series of major improvements to Interstate 90.
Sunny and warm weather returns to the Inland Northwest through this weekend with highs running from the upper 60s today to the upper 70s over the weekend.
Fog hanging in the valleys and lower elevations of the Inland Northwest created some visibility problems for commuters this morning, but it has since evaporated to show off a sunny spring day.
A Spokane woman has been arrested on a first-degree arson charge in connection with an apartment fire Friday morning at 1818 W. Northridge Court in Spokane.
Spokane and Spokane Valley police have arrested four persons after officers during the weekend spotted drivers in stolen Hondas and chased them in high-speed pursuits.
A low-pressure system is moving across the Inland Northwest today, but it may be the last in a string of spring storms dating back to the middle of April.
A long-awaited traffic improvement project in east Spokane gets under way on Tuesday with construction of an overpass for Havana Street across BNSF Railway lines. The city of Spokane has long wanted another reliable north-south route in the important industrial sector of the city.
More spring showers are expected today as temperatures slowly begin to rebound from the cold air that dropped into the region earlier this week and brought snow showers to some locations this morning.
Steve and Mary Franklin jumped at the chance for grant money to reduce wildfire risk on their 12-acre wooded property west of Nine Mile Falls. Using a series of grants, the state Department of Natural Resources is providing free tree thinning and vegetation removal to residents in areas considered at risk of raging wildfire.
Residents at Maplewood Gardens in north Spokane were back in their rooms Wednesday after a Tuesday night fire damaged one unit and forced a large temporary evacuation. No one was injured seriously at the senior assisted- and independent-living facility, said administrator Karen Burgerson.
Fire damaged an upper-story apartment at Maplewood Gardens retirement community in northeast Spokane late Tuesday, causing evacuation of one full floor and parts of two others.
