Friday, September 17, 2004
Weather columnist Kevin Myatt: That feeling in the air
Kevin Myatt is The Roanoke Times' weather columnist.
kevin.myatt
@roanoke.com
981-3341
Weather with Kevin Myatt
Recent columns
- Winter trying again to show up with snow
- We got graupel, but not on official record
- Moisture could get caught up in cold blast
- Column archive
Read the Weather Journal blog
- Many looking past mild, quiet week toward possibly wild weekend
- Sprinkles or flurries possible Tuesday, but maybe something bigger for the weekend?
- For now, it looks like a quiet, mostly mild week ahead for SW Virginia
- Weather Journal blog
#swvawx on Twitter
@KevinMyattWx
Watching individual storms popping up on radar this morning rather than a vast area of rain, the feeling began to hit me.
This would not be a day of massive flooding with constant heavy rain, but rather a turbulent stormy day. And quite likely, one with tornadoes.
The remnants of Ivan began sucking in dry air overnight, setting up a collision between this dry air and the thickly humid tropical air. The storms were being pulled northward, with complementary winds undercutting winds higher aloft blowing in a different direction. And then the sun even popped out a few times, warming things up a few critical degrees and destabilizing the atmosphere.
Then there was that thought about 10 a.m., with an oppressive humid blanket hanging over us, like I had experienced so many times in 29 years of living in Arkansas but only a couple of times here. That sixth sense registered: This is tornado weather.
All week, I had an inkling that Ivan’s angle of travel inland would put us in the critical “front right quadrant,” or zone northeast of the old hurricane’s center, where the spin would be intensified and lead to a heightened tornado threat. Frances had triggered many tornadoes in central and eastern Virginia. If Ivan was just a little farther west, wouldn’t that mean the tornado threat was farther west.
Many, many tornado warnings were issued today, but apparently, only a few touchdowns were spotted. Weather service radar kept picking up rotation, all cases of which were potential tornadoes. In Henry County and Bedford County, apparently, destructive tornadoes reached the ground.
We probably won’t get the catastrophic flooding we thought might happen with Ivan, though rain moving in from the west tonight might yet raise creeks and rivers. But Ivan has certainly produced a memorable day for many in our area, and for some, a painful day. Yes, it could’ve been worse, but it was mighty scary as it is.
