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.

Looks like Fay won't bring us rain

A mere tropical storm isn't going to kick sand in the face of a big high-pressure system.

In the world of weather, we often tend to think of things that blow and spin as the bullies of the atmosphere.

Even though Tropical Storm Fay had not yet become a hurricane as of Tuesday evening, surely it would be able to do what it wants against something boring such as a mass of slowly sinking air that makes up a high-pressure system.

But that high-pressure system, building across the northeast United States, is likely to hold Fay at bay south of us, then deflect it westward.

The result may be that a once-promising opportunity for appreciable rain to ease our drought won't bring us a drop.

Parts of Alabama, Georgia and north Florida, also suffering varying degrees of drought, will likely see rain in buckets. An isolated location collecting 2 feet of rain will be well within the realm of possibility the next few days, and many places getting 10 inches or more is likely.

Rather than spread a few inches of rain over several dry states, Fay is much more likely to turn a cracked riverbed into a house-eating torrent somewhere in the Deep South.

Perhaps Fay's presence will be able to spin up some more tropical moisture into our region late in the week for an enhanced threat of showers and thunderstorms. But the chances of a big rain are slipping away.