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.

How much snow did we really get? It depends

The first report of snowfall depth in Roanoke released by the National Weather Service on Monday cited 7 inches as the storm total. Another report called it 9 inches. But the official snowfall, measured at WDBJ (Channel 7), ended up being only 3.6 inches.

So which is right? Maybe all of them.

The first part of the snow on Sunday occurred with temperatures near or slightly above the freezing mark. So, depending on subtle temperature changes related to elevation differences and patterns of urban development, snow stuck better at some places in the Roanoke Valley than it did in others.

Other factors that could have played a role in varying snow totals over a small area include uneven accumulation patterns between bare and grassy areas, the effects of drifting by winds, and the narrow banding of heavy snow that developed early Monday morning.

Regardless of how deep it got at your house, this will go down in the record books as only a 3.6-inch snowfall for Roanoke, making it similar to snows that occurred on Jan. 17, 2008; Feb. 6, 2007; and Feb. 11, 2006.

But looking at the entire Roanoke Valley, where many areas did legitimately have 6 to 9 inches, and the counties around, where up to 14 inches accumulated, it is clear that this winter storm overall was the biggest since a similar one on Feb. 28, 2005.