Kevin Myatt

Latest entries from the Weather Journal blog

• UPDATE 5:30 PM: We'll remember this for winds, not snow
• UPDATE 12:40 PM: Window for pure snow closing; sleet/freezing rain more likely
• UPDATE 10:30 AM: Snow again -- an early start

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.

Surprising news about summer '09

How is it that such a mild summer in Roanoke can end up seven-tenths of a degree above normal in temperature?

Ah, statistics. They play weird tricks with our perceptions.

The average temperature for June, July and August -- meteorological summer -- was 74.5 degrees, compared with the normal of 73.8 degrees. (National Climatic Data Center norms are figured from the 1971-2000 average.)

The trick here is simply that June and August were slightly above normal in temperature, offsetting a July that was Roanoke's seventh-coolest dating to 1912.

Temperatures in June and August were bolstered more by some warm nights rather than hot days. Roanoke only had nine days at or above 90 this year, eight of which occurred during the June-to-August period, and it never got hotter than 92.

Nationally, this summer, averaging 71.4 degrees, was four-tenths of a degree below the 20th century average and a departure from recent summers that have been considerably warmer than normal.

This summer's coolest weather was centered in the north-central states, where Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, Nebraska and South Dakota had summer average temperatures that were between the fifth- and tenth-coolest on record dating back to 1895.

September, so far, has averaged about a degree below normal in Roanoke, but the next couple of days will feel more like late August with highs in the mid-80s.

Weather Journal appears on Monday, Wednesday and Friday.