Kevin Myatt is The Roanoke Times' weather columnist.

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Weather with Kevin Myatt

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• We got graupel, but not on official record
• Moisture could get caught up in cold blast
• Forecast for Weather Journal: Partly print, with frequent Internet
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• Sprinkles or flurries possible Tuesday, but maybe something bigger for the weekend?
• For now, it looks like a quiet, mostly mild week ahead for SW Virginia
• Coldest morning of winter so far likely across much of Southwest Virginia; Tuesday precipitation looking doubtful
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Fire on one coast, chill on the other.

This phrase works quite often, as it does now.

Much of the West Coast has had a hot, dry summer, while much of the East has had a cool, wet one.

Currently, wildfires are raging in Southern California, while a Canadian air mass is expected to bring a touch of fall to Southwest Virginia this morning, with lows in the 40s and lower 50s.

The North American continent is just the right size to commonly see the phenomenon of the jet stream being far to the north on one side and far to the south on the other. That's why it's not unusual to have extreme heat and drought on one side of the country while it's cool and moist on the other side.

This is really borne out in late fall and winter when, sometimes, the same high pressure system forcing fiery Santa Ana winds through Southern California's arid valleys is also pushing Arctic chill dotted with snowflakes over the Appalachians.

But the El Nino pattern of warm oceans in the equatorial Pacific Ocean usually leads to big rainstorms later in the fall and winter in Southern California. If those occur, they will be welcome to quell the fires, but mudslides will be a threat with so many scorched and parched hillsides.

Weather Journal appears on Monday, Wednesday and Friday.