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.

Cold January was really not all that special

The coldest January in five years was extremely normal, historically.

Roanoke's average temperature of 35.9 degrees for the month was a miniscule one-tenth of a degree above normal for January, while Blacksburg's average of 30.9 degrees was exactly normal. Climatic normals are based on 30-year-averages from 1971-2000.

While the Jan. 15-17 Arctic snap that sent temperatures down to 3 at Roanoke and minus 4 at Blacksburg was the standout weather event of the month, there were enough milder days early in the month, and one or two interspersed amid the late-month cold, to offset the severe chill.

Not since 2004 has there been a January that averaged below normal in temperature. Between 2005 and 2008, Roanoke ranged from 1.7 to 7.7 degrees above normal in January.

Precipitation for the month was also close to normal, with Roanoke's 2.72 inches about a half-inch below normal, and Blacksburg's 3.6 inches about a quarter-inch above normal. Every January except one since 1999 has had below-normal precipitation in Roanoke.

So January, on average, was a very normal weather month -- except for that one white, flaky, category I'm not talking about right now.