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.

We stay cool while 'heat dome' smothers others

So far this summer, the heat is on somewhere else.

One of the things to watch for in the summer weather pattern is where the "heat dome" sets up. The heat dome refers to a large high-pressure system -- essentially, a huge mound of stagnant, hot air -- that tends to park itself over at least one region of the country.

Underneath the heat dome, temperatures broil, and there's very little rain. But depending on how it sets up, regions outside the dome can experience cooler and/or rainy weather because of the high-pressure system's clockwise circulation.

So far in this early summer, the heat dome has set up over the south-central United States -- generally Texas, Arkansas, Oklahoma and surrounding states.

While that region has had temperatures in the 90s to near 100 several days, cold fronts and storm systems have traced the edges of the high and passed through the northern Plains and upper Midwest, sliding southeast toward our region.

But the high's clockwise flow has continued to cut off most moisture return from the Gulf of Mexico, so the cold fronts are passing mostly dry while reinforcing temperatures that are near or slightly below normal.

As the summer progresses, the location of the heat dome will largely determine our weather. If it stays away, so will the searing heat.

Kevin Myatt's column runs Monday, Wednesday and Friday.