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.

Unusual high tides at coast could last a decade

If you go to the beach in the near future, don't be surprised if the water seems a little high.

Tides along the East Coast have been running 6 inches to 2 feet above normal in recent weeks.

Scott Harper wrote about that in a recent article in The Virginian-Pilot of Norfolk.

One scientist Harper interviewed, John Boon of the Virginia Institute of Marine Science, pointed to the possibility that the Atlantic Ocean is entering a new phase of wind and water currents that could produce similar tides for about the next decade.

"There's no scientific debate that these anomalous cycles happen," Boon told the newspaper. "It's what causes them that's debated."

Scientists are closely monitoring the high tides, which are unusual in the breadth of coast they have affected, essentially the entire Eastern Seaboard.

The scientists interviewed by Harper emphasize that these tides are not believed to be related to the observed rising sea levels on the world's oceans, as the phenomenon has developed suddenly rather than gradually.

To read more about the unusual tides, go online to Harper's article at tinyurl.com/mh3td5.

Weather Journal appears on Monday, Wednesday and Friday.