Kevin Myatt

Latest entries from the Weather Journal blog

• Weather Journal taking a long break
• Yes, there's still an Atlantic tropical season going on
• Freezing temperatures likely tonight

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.

Southwest Virginia might experience just little bits of Fay

It's all about Fay this week.

Tropical Storm Fay is likely to strike somewhere along the eastern Gulf Coast on Tuesday or Wednesday, possibly as a hurricane. There is a good chance that Fay's remnants will move toward us by the end of the week.

Here are a few things to keep in mind as we watch Fay this week.

n Flooding can occur even after months of drought. The remnants of Hurricane Frances in 2004, coming after a dry summer, took the Roanoke River just out of its bank. So did five days of heavy rains in late June 2006 amid a period of several otherwise dry months.

n Fay will probably move slowly once it makes landfall as it bumps up against high pressure to its north and east.

n We're unlikely to get widespread wind damage. We're simply too far inland from a storm making landfall along the Gulf Coast, especially if it is a slow mover.

n There could be a tornado risk. Some tropical systems spawn many tornadoes as they move inland. In 2004 Hurricane Ivan produced nearly 120 tornadoes, including twisters in Henry and Bedford counties. Others produce very few. The reasons for that variance are not well understood.

n There's still a chance we won't get a drop from Fay. It could still curve too far east (medium chance), stall and rain itself out (slight chance), or swing wildly west (little chance).

n Fay is not a solution for the drought. But, if we can get about 2 to 4 inches of rain from it fairly steadily, it could help a lot.