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.

Tornadoes rare in valley; fatalities even more so

Buried six paragraphs deep in an article about inclement weather in the April 24, 1896, issue of The Roanoke Daily Times is news about what appears to be the only tornado deaths in the recorded history of the Roanoke Valley.

A woman and two children were found amid the ruins of a demolished storehouse on Colorado Street in Salem, one of at least three buildings destroyed in what was likely a tornado, according to the newspaper and a tornado researcher.

All three victims were black, and in an era of segregation, their deaths were marginalized underneath news of soaked and wind-blown downtown Salem pedestrians.

Tornado researcher Tom Grazulis, in his historical book "Significant Tornadoes," states that eight people buried under the rubble were members of the same family. The Times did not carry that account, but did note: "It seemed a miracle that all were not killed, as the building was completely demolished and lying flat on the ground as though crashed on by some tremendous weight."

Since then, there have been no tornado deaths and very few confirmed tornadoes in the Roanoke Valley.

On April 4, 1974, a daybreak tornado skipped on a path from Salem across Roanoke's northwest and northeast quadrants and on to Bonsack. That tornado injured six people and caused almost $600,000 in damage.

In recent years, brief tornadoes caused relatively minor damage near Hollins on Aug. 5, 2003, and scattered across South Roanoke this past June 3.

Tornadoes are rare in the Roanoke Valley, but never say never.