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.

Early autumn snowfall rare in our region

Locations in states to our north such as Binghamton, N.Y., and State College, Pa., got their earliest recorded snowfall of at least 1 inch late this past week.

That snow event was a little like the one that brought a snowfall to a region from the Central Appalachians through the mid-Atlantic states and into the Northeast 30 years ago.

On Oct. 10, 1979, 10 inches of snow fell at Covington, 4 inches at Hot Springs, 2 inches at New Castle and slightly more than an inch at Lexington. It's also considered to be the earliest measurable snow on record in Roanoke, according to the National Weather Service, with 0.3 inch accumulating.

Perhaps the event that most clearly dates the October 1979 snowstorm in the past is that it (or, more specifically, the cold rain that preceded the snow) postponed the World Series opening game in Baltimore between the homestanding Orioles and the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Roanoke's earliest recorded snowfall of at least 1 inch occurred Oct. 27, 1957. Since 1948, measurable snow has occurred in October at Roanoke just twice -- 1957 and 1979 -- and occurs in November about once every three years, usually in very small amounts.

Though some areas north and west of Roanoke may see freezing temperatures this morning, there won't be any more chances of snow the rest of this week, as temperatures gradually warm back to near 70 in the afternoons by late week.

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