Kevin Myatt is The Roanoke Times' weather columnist.

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• Sprinkles or flurries possible Tuesday, but maybe something bigger for the weekend?
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• Coldest morning of winter so far likely across much of Southwest Virginia; Tuesday precipitation looking doubtful
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Today's weather certainly won't be close to what most of you would call beautiful, but it will be indicative of cooler weather on the march.

This is almost certain to be a rainy day with a touch of chill, as high temperatures may struggle to reach 60 in some areas of Western Virginia and probably will go no higher than the mid-60s even in the Roanoke Valley.

We've had some drippy, dank weather this week caused by a "wedge" forming on the eastern side of the Appalachian Mountains. High pressure in Canada has circulated northeast winds into the area, bringing cooler weather.

The angle of these breezes has brought in moisture off the Atlantic rather than drier air from inland New England, and the result has been foggy, drizzly, cool weather as the winds have banked the cooler, damp air mass against the mountains.

Additional moisture from the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean will surge into the upper levels of the atmosphere today ahead of an approaching cold front. This front, while not extreme in the temperatures it will bring, is quite forceful in its movement, driven by strong jet stream winds that are dipping farther and farther south into the United States as the days get shorter and the sun angle lowers slightly.

With clouds, fog, drizzle and rainfall that will be more persistent than torrential, temperatures won't go very far today. Then the front will sweep out much of the moisture for the latter days of the week, and cooler, drier weather more like fall will settle in, with lows in the 50s and highs in the 70s.

While it's not yet what I could truly call fall weather for Southwest Virginia, it is certainly more fall-like. And it is coming far, far earlier than a year ago.

Through the first 23 days of September 2005, Roanoke had only one high temperature below 80 degrees, and barely so at that, with a high of 79 on Sept. 5. Through the first 11 days of this month, it's only been a little above 80 on three days, and two days have already had highs in the 60s, something that didn't happen until Sept. 30 last year.

Fall is well-known for those crisp, clear days when the sky is deep blue and the visibility is so sharp that individual trees can be picked out on ridges 10 or more miles away. But a typical fall also includes its share of dank, drizzly days like we'll experience today with the start of astronomical autumn just 10 days away. Often, we have to trudge through the dampness to get to the grandness.

Sept. 11, 2001

Much has been written in the past few days looking back at the 9/11 tragedy five years ago, but let's consider for a moment the importance of weather on that day.

The weather of Sept. 11, 2001, was extremely placid across the United States and most of North America. High pressure was in control, having pushed a cold front through much of the nation, moving off the East Coast on Sept. 10.

That front clearing the air was why Sept. 11 featured such incredibly blue skies throughout the eastern U.S. I remember to this day how deep blue the skies were over Roanoke that morning, the same as they were in Boston, New York and Washington.

It's certainly true that the flawlessly clear weather removed one obstacle that could have potentially frustrated the hijackers in their quest to crash airplanes into buildings.

But the unusually widespread calm conditions also helped enable the unprecedented ground stop of all commercial and private air traffic later that morning. No large areas of the United States or Canada were closed down to landing aircraft because of inclement weather.

Another notable weather fact about fall 2001 is that it was the last year the United States did not have a hurricane make landfall on its shores. Tropical Storm Gabrielle crossed the Florida peninsula a few days after 9/11, but hardly anyone noticed.

So while our nation was still dealing with the horror of 9/11, an anthrax scare and then the start of war in Afghanistan in fall 2001, it was a blessing that we didn't also have to deal with a major hurricane on top of it.