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.

From the sky, 2008 packed a big punch

Several hours of howling wind over a wide area. A few minutes of swirling wind over a narrow corridor. Months after month lacking needed rainfall.

Those were among the top 10 weather stories from 2008.

1. Feb. 10 windstorm

On a deceivingly sunny Sunday afternoon, winds of 30 to 50 mph with some gusts topping 70 mph behind a strong cold front blasted through the bare trees of midwinter.

The National Weather Service in Blacksburg received reports of significant damage in all 40 of the counties it covers in three states. More than 100,000 people lost power across Virginia, and about 360 wildfires were sparked, the most on record for one day.

Coming two days before Virginia's presidential primaries, the windstorm kept Democratic candidates Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton from making scheduled appearances in Roanoke.

I plan to revisit the big wind in depth in a Weather Journal column before its anniversary.

2. Drought

Roanoke's rainfall for 2008 stands at more than 8 inches below normal, after being about 12 inches below normal in 2007.

Despite some helpful December rains, the drought continues for many. The U.S. Drought Monitor map released Wednesday shows the region generally west of a Floyd to Roanoke to Lexington line still in moderate drought. A thin region 10 to 20 miles east of that line is considered "abnormally dry." Further east, the drought has passed, for now.

But Peter Corrigan, hydrologist at the National Weather Service in Blacksburg, says long-term rainfall deficits could make it easy to slip back into drought status.

"At nearly every time scale from three months to 24 months there is a consistent shortfall in 'average' rainfall across portions of this region, a deficit somewhere in the 15 [percent] to 20 percent range," Corrigan said in an e-mail.

"We have noted here with some amazement the number of different ways we have been able to 'miss out' on significant rain (or snow) events in the past 18 months," Corrigan added. "We just need 'average' winter precipitation and we will naturally emerge from the current drought since this is of course the recharge season."

Mountain Lake in Giles County has almost disappeared, as rainfall and snowfall have been insufficient to offset the draining of the lake through its geological plumbing underneath. Dry vegetation allowed large wildfires to spread on Poor Mountain near Elliston and Caldwell Mountain in Botetourt County in June.

3. June 3 Roanoke tornado

Phil Hysell, warning coordination meteorologist at the National Weather Service office in Blacksburg, filed the following report to the Storm Prediction Center after surveying the path of the June 3 tornado that skipped through South Roanoke.

"An EF0 Tornado, with wind speeds of approximately 70 to 80 mph, first touched down near the intersection of Welch Road, and Bluefield Blvd., near Fishburn Park at 6:27 PM EST. A narrow and very sporadic swath of tornado damage was observed on a southeast path ending on Robin Hood Road, just over one and a half miles away. The width of the tornado was 60 yards at its greatest. Damage was confined to trees blown down, with a few falling on homes, but there was not direct damage to homes or other structure."

In a year with more than 2,000 tornado reports nationally and in which 125 people have been killed by tornadoes -- the most in a decade -- that report won't stand out to many people. But it was the first confirmed tornado in the city of Roanoke in 34 years, leaving $350,000 in damage on 55 properties, including 10 homes and six vehicles damaged by falling trees or limbs.

4. May 8 Franklin-Henry counties tornado

An EF-1 tornado, with winds of 85 to 95 mph, cut a path from northern Henry County to southern Franklin County, damaging four homes and the Blue Mountain stage near Snow Creek.

5. June 22 hailstorms

Severe storms pummeled parts of Roanoke and Blacksburg with marble to golfball-sized hail, covering the ground in a few spots.

6. Tropical Storm Fay, Aug. 26 and 27

Fay's meandering remnants dumped 3 to 7 inches of desperately needed rain on areas along and east of Interstate 81, while dropping 1 to 3 inches of rain west of I-81.

7. June 4 through 10 heat wave

Highs hit the mid-90s on five consecutive days for Roanoke, setting or tying two daily record highs. Blacksburg set record high temperatures on five consecutive days with highs in the upper 80s and low 90s.

8. Tropical Storm Hanna, Sept. 5 and 6

Hanna moved through eastern North Carolina and southeast Virginia, spreading a shield of rain that split Southwest Virginia in half. Roanoke and locations to the north and south got one-half to 1½ inches. To the east, several inches fell. To the west, including most of the New River Valley, almost nothing fell.

9. Unnamed cyclone, Sept. 26 and 27

A pinwheeling coastal storm bearing some tropical characteristics, but never named by the National Hurricane Center, moved inland toward Southwest Virginia, dropping widespread 1- to 3-inch rainfall amounts.

10. Feb. 1 ice storm

Overnight and morning freezing rain knocked power out to about 7,500 in Southwest Virginia. Floyd County and the city of Roanoke accounted for the bulk of the power outages -- an unusual twist in that several ice storms in previous years had left most of the Roanoke Valley unscathed.