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.

Christmastime -- indoors and out -- can be full of surprises

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.