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.

Once again, Roanoke is on the razor's edge between weather systems

It will be another borderline ice threat for Southwest Virginia tonight and Tuesday, as our region will be riding the razor thin margin between a major ice storm and another long, cold but liquid rain.

An imperfect atmospheric setup leads to a danger of imperfect forecasts, as tiny variables that won't be known until the precipitation actually begins falling could lead to major changes in the results.

High pressure to the northeast will be banking cold air against the mountains of our region as moisture from the southwest, swept northeastward by a low-pressure system moving up from the Gulf of Mexico, overruns the cold air.

The cold air mass isn't really all that thick, but it's just cold enough that, in early January, it will be flirting with the freezing mark. The high pressure system pushing the cold air southward is also not perfectly placed. Its position near Washington, D.C., may prove to be too far east to properly hold the cold air in.

So this could be a troublesome ice storm, a minor nuisance or even a winter-weather no-show.

The early call: a brief period of freezing rain and sleet in most areas late Monday night and early Tuesday, changing to rain during the day. This might vary by location.

You know if you live in one of those places where the ice seems to hold on longer after it's just puddles here in the Roanoke Valley.