A warm spell in March shattered long-standing temperature records across the Inland Northwest, with daily highs and minimums exceeding century-old benchmarks. A cooling weather pattern with rain is expected to follow the record-setting heat.

Flooding caused by rapid snowmelt and rain in the Inland Northwest led to multiple road closures and forced highway maintenance crews to pump water off major roadways.

Severe wind gusts up to 70 mph caused significant damage in Spokane, Washington, downing trees and cutting power for thousands of residents. Tragically, two deaths occurred when a tree fell onto a vehicle.

Two people were killed when a tree fell on their truck on U.S. Highway 2 near Spokane International Airport, likely due to heavy winds.

A second case of chronic wasting disease (CWD) has been confirmed in Washington, detected in a white-tailed deer in Spokane County. This follows the first case earlier in the year.

A dry January across most of Idaho left the Panhandle with below-normal snowpack and increased drought worries."Notably, the Coeur d’Alene-St. Joe basins received only 38% of normal precipitation for January," according to the Idaho Water Supply Report from the Natural Resources Conservation Service released Tuesday. Nine snow monitoring sites in the Panhandle recorded their driest or second-driest January, the report said.

Ponderosa pines in Eastern Washington are displaying signs of irregular growth.

A recent outbreak of salmonellosis is leading to the deaths of wild birds throughout the northern United States. The current die-off affects finches such as pine siskins as well as other songbirds.

Larger-than-normal kokanee in Lake Coeur d’Alene are sending migratory eagles wheeling on to better hunting grounds this winter.

Personnel from Spokane County Fire District 3 and the state Department of Natural Resources were working to contain the fires on Monday, while a record-breaking heat wave threatened to maintain ample supplies of dry air and fuel.