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.

U.S. regions see unusual summer temperatures

Summer is sizzling in Alaska. Summer is missing in New England.

Temperatures in central Alaska were similar to those of Southwest Virginia on Monday.

Fairbanks, Alaska, had the same high temperature as Roanoke at 88. In Fairbanks, that tied a record high for the date (Roanoke was 11 degrees off its record of 99). Some stations in central Alaska even reached the low 90s.

Barrow, Alaska, on the Arctic Coast, reached 70 degrees for the second day in a row -- the first time in 16 years that Barrow had reached 70 on consecutive days.

Meanwhile, the Northeast is experiencing a summer that hasn't really gotten started yet.

Many reporting stations from New York to Maine are running 4 to 7 degrees below normal for the month of July. Binghamton, N.Y., set a record low for the date of 51 on Monday, and Rochester, N.Y., followed with a record low of 48 on Tuesday.

The extremes of Alaska and New England are connected.

Strong high pressure has nosed into Alaska, bringing stagnant, hot air far to the north. But that high also is tipping the jet stream southeastward, pushing cool air from Canada into the Great Lakes and Northeast.

The flow of air out of Canada has kept our weather from being extremely hot. After the next two days when highs could reach the low 90s in some places, milder summer weather is likely to return for Southwest Virginia through the weekend and into early next week.