Kevin Myatt

Latest entries from the Weather Journal blog

• Some nighttime weather fireworks on Independence Day?
• A new type of cloud?
• Much the same into the foreseeable future

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.

Approaching freeze looks deep, but snowy skies no guarantee

January 1985 is the gold standard by which we compare all Arctic outbreaks.

It is unlikely that the intrusion of polar air arriving before Barack Obama's inauguration will rival that which hampered Ronald Reagan's second inauguration. That blast sent Roanoke to minus 11 and Blacksburg to minus 18, both all-time records, on Jan. 21. Mountain Lake bottomed out at a state record minus 30.

But, as frigid as the January 1985 plunge was, it also arrived with little snow in Southwest Virginia. Two to 3 inches of snow fell in the area three days before the Arctic blast, but most of it had melted when the big chill took hold.

In fact, 1984-85 was Roanoke's least snowy winter of the 1980s, with only 6 inches for the season. All but three of the generally mild winters of the 2000s have been snowier than that.

It must be cold to snow, but it doesn't always snow when it is cold. The weather pattern developing this week is big on cold, but may not produce snow.

Our best chances for snow this week revolve around Alberta clippers arriving Tuesday and again late Wednesday or early Thursday. These rapidly southeast-moving low-pressure systems are not known for widespread snowstorms in our area. But every now and then, one of them does pop out a few inches. Either, or both, of these could spread light snow across Southwest Virginia.

Single digits are probable and below-zero readings are possible between Thursday and Saturday, when this Arctic blast peaks. But snow looks minimal ... at least this week.