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.

Gains against drought are drying up

The drought is not gone. In recent weeks, it has gotten worse.

The most recent U.S. Drought Monitor map has placed most of the Roanoke and New River valleys back under moderate drought, while almost all of Virginia except the northern tip is under "abnormally dry," or minor drought.

Rain is expected today and tonight -- possibly beginning as a period of snow, sleet and freezing rain that could briefly slicken some areas this morning -- but it won't be nearly enough to make a serious dent in the long-term problem.

So far in February, only .38 inch of rain has fallen in Roanoke and only .58 in Blacksburg.

Both sites were near normal for precipitation in December and January. Those rains were enough to get most of Southwest Virginia out of moderate drought for a short time but not enough to overcome about four years of drier than normal weather. Now, just a couple of weeks of mostly dry weather has us slipping into deeper drought, again.

Many people have noted that it's not snowing like it's supposed to in this winter or in several recent ones, But really, that is only a tiny subset of a much bigger issue: It's not raining like it's supposed to at any time of year.