Skagit County, WA

On the heels of hot weather Monday and a scorcher forecast for Saturday, Skagit County announced that a burn ban will take effect at noon Friday. The burn ban will apply to all unincorporated areas of the county. Residents of cities or towns should check with their local fire departments about burning rules.

As temperatures climbed as expected Monday, the National Weather Service’s Seattle office released a new heat risk notice for the weekend ahead. Mid-Monday, temperatures across Skagit County ranged from 70 in Anacortes to 92 near Marblemount. Like Monday, Friday and Sunday are now forecast by the weather service to be...

Here’s a sampling of recent calls to local police and fire agencies:. Crews responded to a fire early Monday in a building behind Papé Machinery on Hickox Road in south Mount Vernon. According to a city of Mount Vernon news release, firefighters arrived on scene at 4:17 a.m. and were...

Skagit County Public Health has reported 23 new cases of COVID-19 for the seven-day period running June 13 through June 19. It is the lowest number of new COVID-19 for a seven-day, Sunday-through-Saturday period since Sept. 13-19 when 17 cases were reported. The latest seven-day, Sunday-through-Saturday period brought with it...

ALGER — Three drivers led from green flag to checkered Saturday in the final tuneup at Skagit Speedway before this weekend's Jim Raper Memorial Dirt Cup. Justin Youngquist, Rick Smith and Zach Dalrymple all ended up in victory lane Saturday in Alger, with Youngquist leading all 30 laps in the sportsman sprints Showdown.

It might just be our collective imagination, but it seems that the creatures with which we share the Skagit Valley are getting more and more colorful, day by day. You be the judge. The submission of pictures by Skagit Valley Herald readers is much appreciated, so please keep those photos...

Local leaders are focused on developing response plans for schools and communities that may be in the path of damaging tsunami waves following a Cascadia Subduction Zone earthquake. New modeling, publicized in May, shows that a tsunami originating from the Cascadia fault off the West Coast will have a broader...

The Skagit Public Utility District has no plans to call for water conservation measures despite a national shortage of chlorine, which the district uses to purify water. This comes after the city of Anacortes asked its water customers Thursday to conserve water, saying the city is running short on the chlorine compound sodium hypochlorite it uses to purify water and may be unable to meet the demand for clean water.

SWINOMISH INDIAN TRIBAL COMMUNITY — The Swinomish Police Department has added a new officer to its ranks — one with four legs, a tail and a nose primed to detect drugs. Viking, an 18-month-old Belgian Malinois, joined the department this week, providing what Swinomish Police Chief Earl Cowan hopes will be a tool to better protect the community — especially when it comes to the increasing amount of drugs coming onto tribal land.

The date is lodged in Erin’s Long mind. She doesn’t need to comb through records or consult a calendar. “It was March 16,” the Hospice of the Northwest volunteer coordinator said confidently, remembering the day in 2020 the organization’s volunteers could no longer go to patients’ homes and care facilities because of the threat of COVID-19.