Kevin Myatt is The Roanoke Times' weather columnist.

kevin.myatt
@roanoke.com
981-3341

Weather with Kevin Myatt

Recent columns

• We got graupel, but not on official record
• Moisture could get caught up in cold blast
• Forecast for Weather Journal: Partly print, with frequent Internet
• Column archive

Read the Weather Journal blog

• Sprinkles or flurries possible Tuesday, but maybe something bigger for the weekend?
• For now, it looks like a quiet, mostly mild week ahead for SW Virginia
• Coldest morning of winter so far likely across much of Southwest Virginia; Tuesday precipitation looking doubtful
• Weather Journal blog

#swvawx on Twitter

@KevinMyattWx

• Follow Kevin on Twitter at @KevinMyattWx

My biggest Christmas weather memory doesn't revolve around snow.

On Christmas Eve 1982, tornado sirens blared off and on through the night as waves of storms rolled across my native Arkansas. Without a storm cellar, my family took shelter in the bathroom.

Our home wasn't hit, but only about 10 miles to our west, several homes were damaged by a tornado. So much for Yuletide cheer.

Christmas morning dawned with temperatures in the 60s, though the storms had thankfully passed.

The following Christmas in 1983 brought the opposite: minus 6 degrees with a crunchy, shiny shell of ice and snow covering the landscape.

Roanoke's weather statistics show a similar contrast in those consecutive years. Christmas 1982 had a high of 68; Christmas 1983 had a high of 11 following a low of minus 4.

Christmas, like any other day on the calendar, can present a variety of weather extremes. This time, we are seeing extremes within a few days of one another.

After temperatures rushed nearly to 70 Friday night, then fell into the single digits and teens Monday and Tuesday mornings, we will likely see highs in the 50s today.

There might be a dab of ice this morning before it warms up, and some rain will likely fall on the night before Christmas -- but no tornadoes.