Kevin Myatt

Latest entries from the Weather Journal blog

• Weather Journal remains on break
• Coastal low prompts Southwest Virginia flooding
• Hurricane Ida: Something extraordinary may be happening

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.

Temperatures should be moving up as week goes on

It's back to the same old grind for the atmospheric pattern as the new workweek starts.

High pressure is renewing its hold on the south-central United States, centered on Texas and Oklahoma, where temperatures will begin pushing to near or above the 100-degree mark for the next several days. This feature occurred in the same region much of the latter half of June, and only bent a little without entirely breaking last week.

But in the East, including Southwest Virginia, cooler northerly to northwesterly winds rotating around the clockwise-spinning high will keep sunny days in check. Expect temperatures to make just the upper 70s to mid-80s the next few days.

Some hotter weather may eventually make it to our region, though. There are signals that the high over the south-central U.S. will expand.

First, it will likely stretch more northward, toward the Northern Plains and the Upper Midwest, taking extreme heat with it. In time, the high may start expanding eastward as well, and that would bring hotter weather our way.

It's not unusual to see a heat dome like this build in July and then either shift or expand to bring searing heat to other places.

Only time will tell if this will become only the second triple-digit summer in the past decade in Roanoke. For this week, don't be surprised to see a 90-degree high by week's end.

Weather Journal appears on Monday, Wednesday and Friday.