Kevin Myatt

Latest entries from the Weather Journal blog

• Weather Journal remains on break
• Coastal low prompts Southwest Virginia flooding
• Hurricane Ida: Something extraordinary may be happening

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.

Cool spell may take the steam out of June

This month has been on pace to be the hottest June on record at the Roanoke Regional Airport.

But a period of unseasonably cool weather over the next several days probably will bring the month's average temperatures out of record territory.

Through Monday, Roanoke's average temperature for the first 16 days of June was 78.4 degrees -- a little more than 8 degrees above normal and just over a half-degree higher than the record hottest June, 77.8 degrees, in 1952.

Roanoke's high temperature reached at least 90 degrees on 11 of the month's first 16 days, and all but one of those days averaged at least 3 degrees above normal in temperature.

But the jet stream has made a major shift, and is now coming from the northwest out of Canada over the eastern United States. It is likely to remain in this position for the rest of this week, possibly into next week, bringing down reinforcing shots of cooler Canadian air.

Highs through most of the next week are expected to be in the 70s to low 80s; normal highs are in the mid 80s. Lows may dip into the 50s, below the normal near 60. Some rural locations may drop into the 40s.

Each day of below-normal temperatures will chop a little off the month's average temperature. This cool snap probably will be long enough to keep June from being a record hot month, but maybe not long enough to keep it from being a warmer-than-normal month.