SPOKANE COUNTY, Wash. —
Washington state reopens Wednesday, ending more than a year of COVID-19 restrictions
It was mid-May when Gov. Jay Inslee said Washington would fully reopen on June 30 following more than a year of closures and limitations caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
A week ago, while visiting Vancouver, Inslee reaffirmed his statement saying the state would reopen “no matter what,” even if the state had not reached the 70% vaccination threshold. Read more
The heat wave gripping the Northwest is one for the record books. The temperatures being recorded across the region are once-in-a-lifetime rare, if not more so than that. Most locations haven’t seen heat like this in recorded history.
As of 4:10 p.m. on Tuesday, Spokane International Airport is up to 109 degrees and has broken the all-time record high temperature for the city. That record, which stood at 108 degrees, has happened twice in history — first on July 26, 1928 then again on August 4, 1961. The forecast for Tuesday is 110 degrees and Wednesday could match that again at 110 degrees. Read more
Due to record-shattering heat, Avista began enacting rolling blackouts on Monday. The company did this to prevent catastrophe to the electrical grid.
But these rolling blackouts in Spokane are different in reason and manner than the blackouts in Texas and California that have generated nationwide attention in the past year. Read more