March heat breaks records over a century old across Inland Northwest
Mar. 26—The balmy weather this week brought about a change to the record books across the Inland Northwest.
Daily high, monthly high and high low records were broken Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday as Eastern Washington and North Idaho experienced their warmest days of 2025, said Laurie Nisbet, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service's Spokane office.
The Lilac City reached its highest-recorded March temperature Wednesday as temperatures hit 75 degrees, according to a 5 p.m. reading of the National Weather Service's equipment at Felts Field Airport.
That replaces a 144-year-old record for the month of 74 degrees, the previous record daily high of 67 degrees set in 1946 and follows a Tuesday high of 70 degrees, which was one degree shy of matching the new daily record.
"Yes, records go back that far," Nisbet said.
The Palouse saw records break in Lewiston and Pullman, with the former setting a new monthly record for the warmest low temperature and daily high recorded at the municipality's airport. Lewiston's Monday low of 55 degrees broke the previous record of 53 degrees set on March 31, 2011. The high of 80 recorded in Lewiston on Wednesday set a new daily record high, beating the previous record of 76 degrees set in 1960.
As of 5 p.m. Wednesday, Lewiston's high was on track to match the monthly record set in 1923, Nisbet said. The weather service is expected to make an official call on whether a new record was set after 1:30 a.m. Thursday.
Temperatures in Pullman broke the college town's record high for March set in 1960 by 2 degrees, hitting a peak of 75 degrees as of 5 p.m. That figure will also serve as the new daily record high for March 26, passing the 79-year-old benchmark of 65 degrees set in 1946.
Across the border in Coeur d'Alene, the daily high record was matched at 70 degrees, still a few degrees short of the monthly record of 73 degrees, Nisbet said.
"It's not going to be this warm much longer," Nisbet said. "The warmth has reached its peak, and now we are cooling down."
Intense storms converged on the Pacific Northwest Wednesday evening, with areas west of the Cascades expecting severe thunderstorms, hail, wind gusts greater than 55 mph and a decent amount of rain. Nisbet said most of the action was concentrated in central Oregon, along the coast and in southwest Washington as of 6 p.m. Wednesday.
Although the Inland Northwest will be mostly spared by the weather pattern, the weather service is still expecting a small chance of thunderstorms, wind gusts and hail as large as an inch in diameter to stretch into early Thursday morning.
Spokane residents, and those in town for the NCAA March Madness games at the Spokane Arena, will likely have to contend with rain for most of Thursday and Friday, with high temperatures in the mid- 50s to low 60s. Saturday's forecast calls for a similar high temperature and a reduced chance of rain.
As of Wednesday, Sunday is shaping up to be a clear day, with temperatures climbing back up to the low 60s, according to the National Weather Service.
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