Kevin Myatt

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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.

Never say never with tornadoes

Tornadoes can't ______.

Tornadoes don't ______.

Tornadoes never ______.

There are lots of things people fill those blanks with and then confidently state as if it's undeniable fact, often in an effort to assure themselves of their own protection from tornadoes wherever they happen to live.

But the truth is, almost every one of those statements is false. Tornadoes do cross rivers. Tornadoes can go over mountains. Tornadoes sometimes even skip over trailer parks.

The much-repeated statement that "Tornadoes don't hit the downtown areas of major cities" was dealt yet another blow Friday night when a tornado with winds estimated at 111-135 mph ripped through the heart of Atlanta.

Frighteningly, Friday's tornado struck the Georgia Dome packed with more than 30,000 people as a Southeastern Conference men's college basketball game was occurring.

A major tornado hitting a packed sports venue has long been a nightmare that emergency managers and weather experts hope never comes true. I don't even want to think what could have happened if this tornado had been a couple of notches higher on the intensity scale.

The idea that tornadoes don't hit close to the skyscrapers of major cities was proven false many years ago.

Between 1997 and 2000, five U.S. metropolitan areas had tornadoes rip through their city's central business district.

The one that should have settled this question for all time was Salt Lake City in 1999. That's Utah, mind you, a state that averages only about two reported tornadoes a year.

On Aug. 11, 1999, a tornado tore through the center of Salt Lake City, killing one person, only the second tornado fatality in Utah's history. It caused $170 million in property damage, including heavy damage to a blessedly empty NBA basketball arena.

Many of you have seen the video of the broad, fierce circulation blowing through downtown Nashville, Tenn., in 1998, and the long, thin funnel snaking through Miami in 1997.

I was living in Arkansas in January 1999 when a nighttime tornado killed three people in downtown Little Rock, narrowly missing the state's governor's mansion during Gov. Mike Huckabee's tenure. A treehouse built in the back yard many years before for Chelsea Clinton got swept away.

The tornado that hit Little Rock was part of a prolific outbreak: More than 50 tornadoes touched down in Arkansas within just a few hours.

Atlanta's tornado on Friday was not. In fact, it was the only tornado reported in the entire United States that day.

That's all the more remarkable because Friday's storm system produced hundreds of reports of hail and high winds across the South. There was lots of severe weather, but only one reported tornado.

What are the chances: Only one tornado in the U.S. all day, and it hits CNN and the Georgia Dome?

Except for an especially violent minority, tornadoes cover areas no more than a quarter-mile wide and can disintegrate from a ferocious frenzy to a wisp of vapor in seconds. So anytime an individual person or small parcel of property is directly affected, it is odds-defying, even in a major outbreak.

So you can always say that it is against the odds that your family or property will be affected by a tornado, even on the most volatile severe weather days.

But you can never, ever, say never.

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