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.

Forecast sees no shortage of rain

June is only a week old, but rainfall is already halfway to normal for the whole month.

Roanoke's 1.87 inches through Saturday is a little past the halfway mark to the normal rainfall for June, which is 3.68 inches, while Blacksburg's 1.86 inches is a little below halfway to its June normal of 3.93 inches.

Thanks to a soggy May, Blacksburg is more than 5 inches ahead of normal for the year through Saturday at 24.52 inches, while Roanoke is a little more than an inch above normal at 19.53 inches.

A very familiar pattern is setting up this week. Southerly to southeasterly winds will build Gulf of Mexico and Atlantic moisture into the region through the week, with the daily threat of showers and thunderstorms triggered by daytime heating, terrain factors and weak disturbances moving through.

A cold front from the west will slowly move our way, but may stall. This will keep us in a sticky air mass for much of the week, and the front itself may help trigger more showers and storms late this week.

So the theme will be the same as in recent weeks: Expect periods of locally heavy rainfall and possibly some severe thunderstorms.

Another above-normal rainfall month looks probable for much of Southwest Virginia. We might get there before the month is half over.

Weather Journal appears on Monday, Wednesday and Friday.