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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.

Expect February to be cold and white

We may not see grass again until March.

It will take something more than the highs in the mid- to upper 30s projected this week to make a serious dent in the calf- to knee-high carpet of slushy, icy, snowy white that blankets much of Southwest Virginia, the result of winter storms on consecutive weekends.

The weather pattern, with its consistent high-pressure blocking over Greenland forcing cold air masses south into the eastern half of North America, shows no signs of allowing any kind of meaningful warming for at least the next two weeks.

What's more, we will probably yet add to wintry coating.

A storm system on Tuesday is likely to bring a mix of freezing rain, sleet and snow to Southwest Virginia. Even if it were to warm a little and just rain, that rain would be absorbed into the snowpack and frozen hard by the windy chill that will follow the system.

Unlike the past two weeks, there is no surefire prospect for a weekend winter storm -- but there is a possibility.

A low-pressure system is expected to develop in the Gulf of Mexico late this week. It is uncertain now whether that storm will move eastward across Florida, safely south of us, or make an ominous turn northeast that could fling another round of thick moisture into our cold air.

Whether or not there is a storm system this weekend, there are additional storm systems lined up into the Pacific that will have a chance to encounter cold air near us and dump more snow.

February is likely to be adorned in white from end to end.

Weather Journal runs on Monday, Wednesday and Friday.