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.

Pressure ushers in Arctic chill

When California burns, we freeze.

That's not an absolute rule, but it's usually the case for reasons related to the placement of a key weather feature.

When the Santa Ana winds crank up in Southern California, it's the result of strong high pressure over the western U.S. to the northeast of California. The clockwise flow around this high pressure system forces strong winds out of the Desert Southwest, across Southern California's mountains.

These winds, accelerating through valleys and canyons, dry out and heat up as they are forced downhill toward the coast. The result is almost always a spate of rampant wildfires.

Southwest Virginia sometimes sees a similar but weaker downslope effect on strong southwest winds over the Appalachians. The fire-spawning, tree-toppling windstorm of Feb. 10 is probably the closest thing to the Santa Ana that most of us will ever experience here.

The same rotation of high pressure responsible for easterly winds in Southern California brings northwesterly winds out of Canada into the eastern United States, often driving through a strong Arctic cold front.

That, indeed, happened on Saturday. The front triggered some showers followed by blustery winds in Southwest Virginia. Encountering more instability in North Carolina, it also spawned deadly tornadoes.

Saturday's cold front will be reinforced by at least two more fronts this week, producing a windy, cold week more akin to January, with a few snowflakes in the air for dramatic effect.