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.

Cold front likely to outmuscle tropical system

There is a tropical system off the East Coast and a cold front from Canada pressing our way from the northwest.

Sound familiar? The weather map was very similar this time a week ago.

Tropical Storm Danny is much closer to the East Coast than was Hurricane Bill last weekend, but it's also much weaker and less organized.

The cold front gliding down from Canada is much stronger than the one that struggled through early this week. It will become a much bigger player in our weather than Danny when it presses through about Sunday.

Danny might make it to hurricane strength, but probably only barely, before becoming more of an extratropical low pressure system as it's rapidly swept northeastward by strong winds aloft.

Its most likely track has it passing just off of the Outer Banks by early Saturday and then scraping Cape Cod and Maine over the weekend.

An upper-level low moving northeast from the Gulf Coast will likely bring us some showers and thunderstorms today and Saturday, while at the same time nudging Danny away. So Southwest Virginia's direct effects from the tropical system are likely to be minimal to nil.

We didn't get any impact from Bill last week, but it did play a role in keeping a cold front from pressing all the way through.

The last cold front brought only a brief respite from what passes for hot weather in what has been a mild summer.

After a day or two with highs in the upper 70s and low 80s early this week, we were back to the mid- and upper 80s by midweek. The last cold front stalled and eventually dissipated just a little east of us, so it never really pushed the humidity out.

The coming front should be much different, with a solid push of cool, dry air behind it likely shoving it into the Atlantic. Do not be surprised to see some lows in the 40s by Tuesday morning in the deeper rural valleys. Lows in the 50s and highs in the 70s will be widespread across Southwest Virginia early next week.

The overall weather pattern that made July among the coolest on record in much of the central, northern and eastern U.S. continues to re-establish itself, with the jet stream dipping deep to the south.

If this pattern sets up for the next few weeks, as there are some indications it will, it is likely to continue deflecting tropical systems away from the United States and allowing autumn to settle in very early.

On the meteorological calendar, autumn begins Tuesday, the first day of September. On the meteorological map, it looks to be right on time.