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Current Conditions: Mostly Cloudy
Temperature: 79°F Wind: From the CALM at 0 mph Relative Humidity: 62% |
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MON Isolated Thunderstorms 67°F...86°F |
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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.
Cold front places our region on cusp of possible ice storm
By Kevin Myatt
The Roanoke Times
A projected warm-up early this week has gotten short-circuited by a fast-moving cold front.
So if you don't like wintry weather, don't be alarmed that it didn't hit 60 this week as seemed possible a few days ago, or even that there is some threat of ice Thursday night and Friday morning.
The overall weather pattern for the next week or two, possibly longer, still strongly favors warmer than normal weather.
Originally, it looked like we would have Monday and Tuesday to warm after the departure of last week's Arctic air mass and before the next cold front arrived.
But the speed of the winds aloft across the United States pushed a cold front through Tuesday night, bringing some rain and returning us to chilly northwest winds.
We will temporarily return to cold weather through Friday, as high pressure moving across southern Canada pushes cold air southward.
This could put us on the teetering edge of an ice storm come Thursday night and Friday.
The next in a series of strong low-pressure systems is expected to move northeastward toward the Great Lakes late this week. That will sweep warm, moist air from the Gulf of Mexico across our region.
At first, the warm moisture may ride over the top of the cold air at the surface. That is often a prescription for freezing rain if surface temperatures are at or below the critical threshold of 32 degrees.
Eventually, the warm air will overcome the cold and it will simply rise above freezing. So our ice threat depends on how long the cold air can hold firm against the surge of warmth and moisture.
While the short-term details focus on renewed cold and the possibility of ice, the larger-scale view of the weather pattern is still very much one that favors mild weather for most of the next several days.
The jet stream will be dipping far to the south across the Western states, continuing to bring cold storms in there like those that have dumped copious rain and snow the past week.
The storm systems will then be lifted northeast by the jet stream toward the Great Lakes. Each one will bring a new round of warmth and moisture, overcoming whatever cold can get established between storms.
There is still lots of uncertainty about what will happen after the next week or two. If the big picture is still that unsettled, the details of what much of February will look like are still very blurry.
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