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.

Warnings linked to growing season

You may have noticed that many counties in North Carolina were placed under freeze watches and warnings Tuesday night and this morning, but counties in Virginia and West Virginia were not even though lower temperatures were forecast.

The National Weather Service only issues frost and freeze advisories at two times of year: when freezing temperatures threaten to end the growing season in the fall and when freezing temperatures threaten to delay or interrupt the growing season in the spring.

Because Southwest Virginia is not yet past its long-term average for the last freeze of the spring, which is typically from mid- to late April in most locations, the growing season is not yet considered to have begun. Therefore, frost and freeze advisories are not issued.

Most of North Carolina, meanwhile, has passed its typical date for the season's latest freeze, so frosts and freezes in early April are considered to have potential to disrupt the growing season. That's why freeze watches were issued down there, but not up here.

Whether it actually got below freezing this morning in your back yard depended on whether or not winds and clouds broke off in time to allow temperatures to dip that far.

Certainly, the New River Valley and points west are likely to be below freezing this morning. The Roanoke Valley and points east could be more borderline.

Whether there was a freeze or not, any threats of below-freezing temperatures that may occur next week and later will be eligible to trigger watches and warnings for parts of Southwest Virginia.