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.

Hopes of December snowfall melt away for now

I guessed the season's first 1-inch snowfall in Roanoke would occur Tuesday. It's not going to happen, nor is it likely anytime soon.

With a mild, showery week ahead, and mild weather likely most of the next two weeks and possibly longer, it's looking good for anyone in the snowfall contest who picked a January or February date for the first 1-inch snowfall.

That would be the few rather than the many. Of the 211 entries I received, only 30 picked a first snowfall date Jan. 1 or later.

The first 1-inch snowfall is only half the contest, but those of us who picked anything before Christmas will be in a big hole if the expected weather pattern comes to fruition.

Each entry is scored by giving one point for every day off the first 1-inch snowfall date, and one point for every inch off the season's total snowfall through April 15, rounded to the nearest inch. The contestant with the fewest points, and therefore the greatest accuracy, wins.

Being 15 or more days off on the first 1-inch snowfall would be a hard deficit to overcome, especially because about half of the total snowfall guesses are bunched in the 10- to 20-inch range. I'm one of them, predicting 17 inches.

If this winter either produces very little snow or goes haywire with frequent winter storms after New Year's Day, most of us are going to be way off, but a few pickers will look like geniuses.