The year in pictures: 2025 in Seattle and Western Washington

Volunteers guide paper lanterns away from the shore as hundreds mark the 80th anniversary of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, on Wednesday, August 6, 2025, during Hiroshima to Hope at Green Lake in Seattle. The glowing memorial of lit paper lanterns with Japanese calligraphy and words of peace, love and justice, represented the thousands of lives lost, hope for a more peaceful future, and a visual reminder of a painful history.

'Power To The People' is written on the back of a demonstrator during the annual May Day rally and march on Thursday, May 1, 2025, near Cal Anderson Park in Seattle. Activists say this year’s rally and march are primarily a response to the Trump administration's crackdown on immigrants and pro-labor groups.

Monisha Harrell is portrayed on Wednesday, January 29, 2025, at Garfield High School in Seattle. She describes the mayor’s office as being a dog-eat-dog environment where white male advisors vied for power and influence.

Guests take in the enchanted Astra Lumina night walk on Thursday, December 4, 2025, at the Seattle Chinese Garden in West Seattle. Over two miles of cables, 500 lighting fixtures, and 200 speakers are required to pull the show off.

Drivers compete in DriftCon on Saturday, April 19, 2025, at Evergreen Speedway in Monroe. DriftCon draws hundreds of people out for drifting battles and a car show. It’s one of many events central to the Seattle area's tuner car scene, defined by enthusiasm for customizing otherwise ordinary vehicles with aesthetic and functional enhancements.

Ricardo Heredia Romero leads a chant among demonstrators on Saturday, June 14, 2025, during the ‘No Kings’ protest at Seattle Center. Protesters fanned across Seattle as part of the national No Kings demonstrations opposing President Donald Trump's immigration raids and ICE policies.

A demonstrator who goes by the name Silentt, right, with the group Juggalos Against ICE, wears a clown nose on Saturday, June 14, 2025, during the ‘No Kings’ protest in Seattle. After nearly a week of daily marches in Seattle, the largest crowd yet met -- loud and energized.

A protester impersonates Donald Trump on Saturday, June 14, 2025, during the ‘No Kings’ protest at Cal Anderson Park in Seattle.

In preparation for the FIFA World Cup 2026, Seattle hosted six games for the Club World Cup. Teams from all over the world came to the city to play against the Sounders, but also against each other. River Plate fans display banners and team colors inside Lumen Field during the FIFA Club World Cup 2025 match against Inter Milan in Seattle, on June 25, 2025, in Seattle.

River Plate supporters are seen cheering for their team during the FIFA Club World Cup 2025 match against Inter Milan at Lumen Field on June 25, 2025, in Seattle.

A pig-tailed macaque named Roscoe is portrayed on Thursday, August 21, 2025, at the Washington National Primate Research Center on the University of Washington campus in Seattle. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. has announced there will be a “dramatic reduction in animal testing” at the Food and Drug Administration. Animal-rights groups like PETA, which has called on Trump to claw back funding from this UW facility, smell victory.

Chipper Lee, a 71-year-old Vietnam veteran adjusts a makeshift flagpole after the American flag outside of North Central Washington Vets Serving Vets location, ‘The Bunker,’ was cut down the night before, on Thursday, July 10, 2025, in Wenatchee. The veteran community in north-central Washington is asking for increased mental health services — to help prevent the next tragedy.

Alex Villatoro, 17, holds a photograph of his parents Leticia and Armando on their wedding day, on Wednesday, March 5, 2025, at his home in Maple Falls, Washington. “I had never heard my mother cry like that before,” said Alex Villatoro, Leticia Villatoro’s second oldest son. He’s a 17-year-old high school senior, and a U.S. citizen. “Seeing my dad handcuffed with three federal agents on him was horrible."

Construction continues on a Microsoft data center on Thursday, July 17, 2025, in Quincy, Washington. Fueled by hundreds of billions in capital expenditures and enthusiasm from the Trump administration, the data center bonanza offers a tempting promise: that small towns could find a new industrial anchor, bringing good jobs, tax revenue, and prosperity to swaths of the country that have been left behind by the digital revolution. But there's a cost.

Erica Henry, a prairie ecologist with the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, releases a Taylor’s checkerspot butterfly at Scatter Creek Wildlife Area on Wednesday, April 30, 2025, in Thurston County. As butterfly populations nationwide decline rapidly, these rare checkerspots appear to be making a comeback in some grassy corners of the Puget Sound region. And 20 years of intensive human effort has likely helped them rebound.

Protesters, including Amina Suchoski, center, dance and laugh while dressed in inflatable costumes during the second No Kings rally on Saturday, October 18, 2025, at Seattle Center. "Trump is trying to divide, distract, and dominate us," said protest organizer Kathleen Carson of Seattle Indivisible. "We know this playbook — dictators divide to conquer. We unite to resist."

Jorge Alviso prunes pink lady apple trees on Monday, March 10, 2025, at Carpenter Ranch in Granger, Washington. Brad Carpenter said it’s the low season, so the farm only has about 70 employees at the moment, and there’s a long list of phone numbers of people looking for work in the front office. But during harvest, the farm employs 300 to 400 people.The Carpenters don’t use the guest worker program. Everyone they hire is a local, he added. A local, but an immigrant. Spanish is the language of the fields.

Chef and cookbook author Omid Roustaei holds saffron threads on Wednesday, April 23, 2025, at The Pantry in the Ballard neighborhood of Seattle. Rousteai said representation matters. “It accounts for our unique cultures. It accounts as a demographic that exists in this culture," he said. "We’re just bringing more light and more awareness.”

City of Seattle mayoral candidate Katie Wilson speaks to supporters as her husband, Scott, picks up their two-year-old daughter Josie on stage, on Tuesday, November 4, 2025, at El Centro de la Raza in Seattle. "No one saw us coming," Wilson said later, giving credit for the win to her supporters and their efforts volunteering, posting on social media, holding house parties, and other activities.

'American Values = Christian Values' reads a sign at the fundamentalist Christian group Mayday USA’s ‘Rattle in Seattle’ event, on Tuesday, May 27, 2025, outside of Seattle City Hall. Tuesday's event saw eight arrests as skirmishes between demonstrators with Mayday USA, a Christian fundamentalist group advocating against trans rights, and pro-LGBTQ activists from either side of a police barricade.

‘Death b4 Detransition’ reads a sign as counter-protesters march following the fundamentalist Christian group Mayday USA’s ‘Rattle in Seattle’ event, on Tuesday, May 27, 2025, at Seattle City Hall. MayDay USA advocates against trans rights.

King County Executive-elect Girmay Zahilay, holding his daughter Jazzy, is sworn in as King County Executive by Judge Richard Jones on Tuesday, November 25, 2025, at the New Holly Gathering Hall. “Jazzy, we’re gonna do the oath of office, OK?” Zahilay said to his 1.5-year-old, who wore white bows in her hair and pink shoes on her feet.

Flooding from the White River is shown surrounding homes near Butte Avenue on Wednesday, December 17, 2025, in Pacific. We don't have numbers yet on how many Washington homes and businesses have experienced flooding. Emergency officials say it's too early to even guess until flood waters recede.

Sand bags barricade the entrance to Katt’s Westside Stories bar along South Barker Street early in the morning on Thursday, December 11, 2025, in Mount Vernon. 100,000 people in Western Washington have been advised to evacuate from their homes.

Liam P., left, and Finn Barclay, right, pull their boat out of the water after attempting to visit a friend who’s home is flooded on Friday, December 12, 2025, on West Snoqualmie River Road Northeast in Duvall. Their motor stopped working and they weren’t able to make it to their friend’s home.

Student volunteers from Nooksack Valley Highschool, Henry Nonhoff, 14, left, and Violet Hunt, 17, right, remove insulation from a flooded crawl space on Wednesday, December 17, 2025, in Sumas. Flooding is expected to surpass a record set in 1990, when floods caused two human fatalities, over 2,000 evacuations, and more than $100 million in damage, according to a Natural Disaster Survey report.

A home is shown completely surrounded by floodwater on Friday, December 12, 2025, in Snohomish. Catastrophic conditions continue to threaten Western Washington as an atmospheric rivers sweep through the Pacific Northwest.

A resident of Snoqualmie is seen getting ready for historic flooding with sandbags on December 11, 2025, in Snoqualmie.

Homes are shown surrounded by floodwater and what appears to be gasoline following consecutive atmospheric rivers on Thursday, December 11, 2025, near Mount Vernon.

John Spaccarotelli, 94-year-old owner and bartender at what many call the ‘last roadhouse in Seattle,’ shakes hands with a customer on Friday, December 19, 2025, during the last night of business at the Shanty Tavern in Lake City. Spaccarotelli has spent 64 years at this spot on the edge of the road in Lake City. This style of a neighborhood bar, equipped with a dance floor, used to be more common decades ago. John Spaccarotelli's patrons and family see it as a vanishing piece of Seattle culture.