Weather

Folks who have held their fingers crossed for a warm Labor Day weekend are in for a treat as Spokane and surrounding areas move into a week of record-breaking September heat.

The National Hurricane Center on Thursday began to forecast a system could form in the Atlantic that could develop into the season’s next tropical depression or storm.

Temperatures are expected to dip into the 80s starting Wednesday and bring with them a chance of thunderstorms after several days of scorching highs that hit triple digits in parts of the Spokane area, according to the National Weather Service.

Spokane is in the midst of a hotter-than-normal end of August, and as the summer winds down, temperatures are 15 degrees above the normal for this time of year.

The National Hurricane Center on Sunday continued to track newly formed Tropical Storm Fernand in the open Atlantic while also eyeing a system approaching the Caribbean that could become the next tropical depression or storm.

Rain showers will start Sunday across Colorado, including on the drought-stricken Western Slope, where multiple wildfires are burning on hundreds of square miles, and continue through at least midweek, according to the National Weather Service. Four wildfires burning in western Colorado, including one that’s the fifth-largest on state record, have scorched nearly 170,000 acres, fueled by hot, ...

LOS ANGELES — Across Southern California, emergency room workers are primed for the wave of patients that pour in as heat waves like the current one drag into their second, third and fourth days. Heat takes an accumulating toll on the body, especially when people cannot cool down at night with air conditioning. Dr. Jennifer Roh, medical director of the adult emergency medicine department at ...

LOS ANGELES — California’s weather conditions are intensifying after a week of extreme temperatures, prompting fire evacuations in Napa County and sparking a handful of blazes that began burning Saturday morning in the Angeles National Forest. The Pickett fire broke out Thursday near a remote area in Napa County as weather officials warned about elevated fire threats across the region. The ...

After one day of widespread, dangerously hot temperatures — including a few that broke daily records— National Weather Service officials are warning Southern Californians that this prolonged heat wave is just getting started.

Hurricane Erin on Tuesday dropped down to a Category 2 hurricane as it headed north in the Atlantic, but prompted coastal advisories for Florida while the National Hurricane Center kept track of two tropical waves that could follow in Erin’s path.

Hurricane Erin on Monday bulked back up as a major Category 4 storm with an increasing wind field as it moved near the Bahamas. Meanwhile, the National Hurricane Center increased the odds a system following in the Atlantic could become the season’s next tropical depression or storm.

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Hurricane Erin strengthened into a powerful Category 5 storm on Saturday only a day after becoming a hurricane. It’s forecast to continue to intensify for at least several hours. NOAA Hurricane Hunters found maximum sustained winds have increased to nearly 160 mph during a pass through the storm just after 11 a.m. Saturday morning, according to the National Hurricane ...

Hurricane Erin became the first hurricane of the season Friday morning, and is expected to develop into a major Category 3 storm this weekend then intensify further as it passes to the north of Puerto Rico in the Atlantic, according to the National Hurricane Center. As of the NHC’s 2 p.m. Eastern time advisory, the center of Erin was located about 415 miles east of the northern Leeward Islands ...

AUSTIN, Texas — The Texas Legislature began a new special legislative session Friday after Gov. Greg Abbott called lawmakers back to deal with congressional redistricting and a host of other issues — laying down a new gauntlet for Democrats who fled the state nearly two weeks ago to halt a vote on a new district map. “We will not back down from this fight,” Abbott said in a statement. “That’s ...

NEW YORK — Brooklyn construction company executive Erden Arkan was sentenced to one year of probation and ordered to pay more than $27,000 in fines Friday after pleading guilty to pumping illegal straw donations into Mayor Eric Adams’ 2021 campaign coffers as part of a scheme prosecutors say involved Turkey’s government. Though the related criminal case against Adams is over, it was revealed ...

The world may be about to shift into a La Niña weather pattern, a development that would increase the risk of storms in the Atlantic as the height of hurricane season approaches there.

Wildfire smoke wafting in from the Bear Gulch fire in Olympic National Park is to blame for the thin veil of haze that hovered over the Spokane area Wednesday.