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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.

Tropical Storm Hanna's rain shield had sharply defined western edge

Early Saturday morning, the rain shield of Tropical Storm Hanna worked its way westward.

The armlike appendage of heavy rain raced westward at first, being spun out from the center of the tropical storm near Myrtle Beach, S.C. But once it got to about Danville, Va., its westward advance slowed to a crawl.

It wasn't like a lot of big rain bands, gradually giving way from heavy to moderate to light to showery to dry over a hundred miles or more. It was razor sharp. There was heavy rain, and then there was no rain.

The rain band stalled about 3:30 a.m.

It was raining hard on the eastern side of Charlotte, N.C., not at all west of downtown. It was pouring in Greensboro, N.C., but neighbor Winston-Salem was dry. The sharp western edge split Henry County, Va., in half.

And it hung up about 10 miles east of Roanoke, refusing to move any farther west.

About 5 a.m, after I had quit watching it on radar and gone to bed, the rain band finally worked into Roanoke, begrudgingly. Over the next three hours, three-quarters to 1 inch of rain fell on the city and its immediate surroundings. But the rain band stopped barely west of Salem. It never got to Blacksburg.

I wouldn't be surprised if, somewhere in western Roanoke County, there was a large farm that got half an inch of rain by the mailbox and only sprinkles at the barn.