Kevin Myatt

Latest entries from the Weather Journal blog

• Weather Journal taking a long break
• Yes, there's still an Atlantic tropical season going on
• Freezing temperatures likely tonight

About Kevin

Kevin Myatt grew up in Arkansas to the tune of tornado sirens and the rhythm of hailstones, aspiring to be a meteorologist before his studies and career were turned to journalism instead. Though he often chases storms, he prefers living in the cooler, more tranquil weather of the Blue Ridge. He moved to Roanoke in 1999 to take a job on the copy desk of The Roanoke Times; writing headlines and editing copy is his principal work for the newspaper today.

Each May, Kevin assists Pulaski County High School / Virginia Tech meteorology instructor Dave Carroll in leading college and high school students to the Plains to observe severe weather firsthand. The accounts of many of his storm chases can be found here on the storm chasing page of his weather blog on roanoke.com.

Kevin was an editor for "Hurricanes and the Middle Atlantic States," a book written by D.C.-area weather enthusiast Rick Schwartz and published by Blue Diamond Books that documents hurricanes striking the mid-Atlantic states since colonial times.

The Weather Journal column began in 2003 and appears on Friday's Virginia section front in The Roanoke Times. The Weather Journal blog began in 2006 and follows weather day-by-day between the larger columns.

Sporadic thunderstorms help mitigate drought ... but not that much

"June rainfall has been inconsistent across the region with pockets of heavy rainfall and areas with very little. Drought conditions are about the same or slightly worse than two weeks ago."

This wording from a statement issued by the National Weather Service in Blacksburg on Thursday answers any questions about whether recent thunderstorms have significantly improved the long-term drought.

Any rain helps some, and thunderstorms in the mountains do provide runoff that helps refill reservoirs and keeps some streams running.

But for widespread moistening of soil dried out by roughly three years of below-normal rainfall, sporadic thunderstorms don't help much. Some places get very little rain, while others get a few minutes of very hard rain that runs off quickly without soaking into the soil.

There is a small creek near where I live that was roiling with muddy water after the June 22 thunderstorms. Six days later, the stream bed was back to dusty rocks.

Through 5 p.m. Sunday, Roanoke Regional Airport has had 4.64 inches of rain in June, thanks to being right smack under big storms on June 3 (the one that spawned the weak tornado in South Roanoke) and June 22 (when hail pummeled much of the city). Roanoke's normal June rainfall is 3.68 inches.

Yet, the Roanoke and New River valleys are still rated as being in a "moderate drought" by the National Drought Mitigation Center in Lincoln, Neb.

There is some good news in the short term: The Climate Prediction Center forecasts above-normal precipitation through the next two weeks.