Kevin Myatt

Latest entries from the Weather Journal blog

• A race against the rain on Sunday
• Sunday afternoon showers possible, but heavier rain likely overnight into Monday
• Sunnier, slowly warming weather on the way

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.

Tropical activity keeping cool weather at bay

The tropics vs. tundra battle that defines our autumn is well under way.

During the past few days, the effects of Hurricane Bill and a large high pressure system to our east have hampered the movement of cooler air from Canada into our region.

As a result, while temperatures did cool down some early this week, the rebound to heat and humidity will be much quicker than earlier expected. The next two days in particular could be quite hot, perhaps even the lower 90s, before new weather factors come into play.

Those factors include a cold front from the north or northwest, trying again to introduce cooler air, and what may become Tropical Storm Danny (or even Hurricane Danny) to our southeast.

The interplay of these features will be important toward the end of the week and over the weekend. A period of humid, showery weather something like we saw last week appears to be probable.

The overall upper-air pattern still suggests that cooler-than-normal temperatures will work southward from Canada into much of the central and eastern United States over the next couple of weeks.

It's just going to be a push-and-pull battle against the sticky tropical stuff.

Weather Journal appears on Monday, Wednesday and Friday.