Kevin Myatt is The Roanoke Times' weather columnist.

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2009-10 is poised to enter some elite company when it comes to snowy winters.

In six decades of official record-keeping at the Roanoke Regional Airport, only 16 winters have had more snow than the present one to date. This winter is almost in the top quarter as it enters February, which is on average our snowiest month.

(When I say "winter," in this case I mean the stretch from late fall to early spring when accumulating snow is possible.)

A half-inch of snow added to the total Saturday night brought the weekend storm to 9.9 inches for Roanoke, and to 28.9 inches for the season. Blacksburg is at 33.5 inches for the season.

A data gap from 1997 to 2004 plays havoc with official snow records for Roanoke. During this time, automated equipment measured liquid precipitation, including melted snow, but snowfall measurement records were not kept.

WDBJ (Channel 7) resumed regular snowfall measurement when it moved to its studio near the airport in 2004.

Looking at some other sources in the area during that gap, the only season since 1996 with similar snowfall to the current one was 2002-03, which reached about 29 inches after a 6-inch late March snow.

Just 4 more inches of snow would move this winter into the top dozen, and not quite a foot more would move it into the 40-inch-plus crowd that includes only seven winters: 1959-60, 1960-61, 1963-64, 1965-66, 1966-67, 1986-87 and 1995-96.

There is lots of time left for the snow to keep piling up this winter. The coming weekend holds a significant chance of another winter storm in the eastern U.S., and the atmospheric pattern appears to be ripe for winter storms into at least midmonth.

Weather Journal runs on Monday, Wednesday and Friday.