National Weather Service

The National Weather Service in Spokane has an unprecedented number of vacancies following federal cuts earlier this year.

(Runtime :46)High temperatures can be deadly, causing heat stroke or even leading to heart attacks and kidney failure.“Heat related deaths are the number…

When you open your phone in the morning or check the weather online, you might be seeing an alert lately: "Red Flag (Fire Weather) Warning."“A Red Flag…

The National Weather Serivce is warning of extreme fire danger Tuesday night and Wednesday. Lightning storms, dry conditions and winds are expected to combine Tuesday evening and Wednesday, priming Eastern Washington and North Idaho for wildfires.

Right now, those all-time heat records are preliminary. It will take a committee, more measurements and tests before those numbers can be officially entered into the record books.

Cities were reminding residents where pools, splash pads and cooling centers were available and urging people to stay hydrated, check on their neighbors and avoid strenuous activities. The National Weather Service in Coeur d’Alene said this week's weather “will likely be one of the most extreme and prolonged heat waves in the recorded history of the Inland Northwest.”

Several Northwest cities set record high temperatures for Saturday. Spokane was not one of them. Its official high of 98 fell two degrees short. In eastern Washington, Pasco, Hanford and Yakima were among those setting records for June 26.

It might be tempting to shrug at the scorching weather across large swaths of the West. This just in: It gets hot in the summer. But this record-setting heat wave's remarkable power, size and unusually early appearance is giving meteorologists and climate experts yet more cause for concern about the routinization of extreme weather in an era of climate change.

The Northwest could see a cooler and wetter winter this season, according to climate outlook models. Forecasters say it’s likely that a recently developed La Niña weather pattern in the Pacific Ocean will continue. That should lead to above average precipitation in Washington, Oregon and Idaho.

The derecho, which raced through the Midwest and focused its attention on Iowa, led to $7.5 billion in damage. That's more expensive than some hurricanes.