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.

The verdict is in: El Nino heating up the Pacific

Two weeks ago, I wrote here that El Nino was raring to go. Now, scientists say it is off and running.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration declared Thursday that El Nino has begun.

El Nino refers to the irregularly recurring warming of central Pacific sea surface temperatures, a phenomenon linked to a variety of climatic changes around the world.

Scientists noted sea surface temperatures 1 degree Celsius (1.8 degrees Fahrenheit) above normal in the eastern Pacific, according to a NOAA news release. The El Nino is expected to intensify through the fall and winter months.

The first commonly noticeable effect of an El Nino for the United States is that, typically, fewer hurricanes than normal develop in the Atlantic. This is because more storminess in the Pacific tends to increase high-level winds over the Atlantic, shearing the tops off potential tropical systems.

This doesn't mean that U.S. coasts are entirely safe from hurricanes. It only takes one monster to make the entire season infamous.

Later in the fall, it is common for a wet conveyor belt of storm systems to develop across the southern U.S. More often than not, Southwest Virginia gets increased rainfall as a result of El Nino, and can get bonus snowfall if other factors push cold air into the region in the winter.

Weather Journal appears on Monday, Wednesday and Friday.