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Latest entries from the Weather Journal blog
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.
Snow is possible; cold is definite
By Kevin Myatt
The Roanoke Times
How would you like a few more helpings of winter?
I've heard from many of you the past couple of days who would consider that like being served filet mignon. Others would be repulsed, like it was Brussels sprouts and turnip greens.
But some people like Brussels spouts and turnip greens, while others can't stand beef.
Today could serve up at least a small dish of wintry wonder following up on Thursday's hearty course of 4-6 inches of snow in the Roanoke and New River valleys.
A low pressure system will move northeastward from the Gulf Coast toward the northeast, somewhere in the general vicinity of Cape Hatteras, N.C. It may be able to throw back enough moisture for some snow in Southwest Virginia.
How much moisture that would be is in considerable doubt. It looks to be a fairly weak and fast-moving low, plus a little farther east than Thursday's storm tracked. The thickest moisture appears likely to travel across central and eastern North Carolina.
The atmosphere will be very cold, especially above the immediate surface level, so it's almost certain that anything falling will be snow.
If the low strengthens or moves any farther west than presently forecast, it could produce a more substantial snow than the scattered snow showers now forecast. If it's weaker or travels farther east, we might not even get flurries.
A bigger helping of true winter hits Sunday and Monday in the form of bitterly cold air from the Arctic Circle. It will be by far the coldest so far this season and possibly the coldest in several years.
Lows by Monday morning will probably be in the single digits and teens across the area, and a few below-zero readings in some of the colder valleys can't be ruled out. Any snow cover that remains from Thursday or is added Saturday will help the mercury drop even lower.
We got as cold as 10 degrees last February and haven't been any colder than 8 degrees since 2000 in Roanoke. There's a chance that by Thursday morning we could challenge those marks.
Temperatures will gradually warm next week, but several disturbances moving across the United States will each pose a threat of precipitation.
We could be walking the rain/snow/ice borderline on any of these systems, as temperatures look to be mostly near what is normal for this time of year highs in the 40s on sunny days, lows in the 20s.
The rest of January is looking to be pretty close to what winter typically looks like in Southwest Virginia.
It would take only a couple of more moderately sized dishes of snow to make this the biggest serving of winter we've had in five years.
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