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.

Timing can affect perception of cold

Many Southwest Virginians, including me, think of this winter as persistently cold and windy, yet with very little snow. So how is it that the winter is averaging above normal in temperature?

December was nearly 3 degrees above normal in Roanoke at 41.8 degrees, and January was very near normal at 35.9 degrees. February, even with the recent cold weather, is still averaging about 3 degrees above normal through Monday at 41.6 degrees.

Some of the statistical deviation from perception relates to how the cold periods broke in relation to the months.

The first big cold period was from mid-November to mid-December. November, technically an autumn month, averaged a little more than a degree colder than normal, but the cold period ended in December in time for some mild days near the end of the month to raise the average.

Another cold period -- extremely cold at times -- included the last couple of weeks of January and the first few days of February. Mild weather took hold after that, which has raised February's averages enough that recent cold weather has only brought it down a few degrees.

Some of it could be our perception compared with recent winters. Coming into this winter, eight of the past 12 winter months, dating to 2005, had averaged at least 1.5 degrees above normal.

So while the cold periods have not been continuous, they have been sharp. January included a short stretch that was the coldest our region has experienced since 1996.

With milder weather moving in the rest of this week, it looks like that mild stretch will become 10 of the past 15 winter months, even though many folks are tired of this winter's biting winds.