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.

Temperature roller coaster flattening out

Now that we've had three consecutive weekends that were like January, June and November respectively, we might actually get close to March later this week.

A zonal jet stream -- or basically a west-to-east flow of air high in the atmosphere, with few dips north or south -- will bring in steadily milder and drier air this week, replacing the cold dampness of the weekend.

Temperatures this week will rise toward the 60s, maybe low 70s, before a new cold front moves in about Thursday, causing a steady lowering of temperatures toward the weekend.

But even at that, this does not look like any kind of frigid blast. By the weekend, expect highs in the 50s and lows in the 30s ... which would be pretty close to normal for March.

Beyond a few showers with Thursday's front, it doesn't look like there will be much in the way of rain this week. Although the weekend's rains were much needed, we're still very dry over the long haul.

But perhaps we can at least get off the temperature roller coaster for a little while and coast through some weather more like March is supposed to be as the astronomical beginning of spring approaches Friday.

Weather Journal appears on Monday, Wednesday and Friday.