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Weather Journal

with Kevin Myatt

Comma-shaped storm = exclamation point rainfall

Posted Oct27, 2006 at 03:27 PM

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Check out the nearly perfect comma shape of today's rain band over the central and eastern United States.This is indicative of a well-developed low pressure system centered over the northeast tip of Arkansas (just about smack dab over where I was born and raised, in fact) pulling moisture north out of the Gulf of Mexico and then back around it through the Ohio Valley into Missouri. Click here for a surface map that pinpoints this low pressure system. This big, rainy low pressure system is why we're in for a continued soaking this evening into Saturday, and why World Series Game 5 will be on the edge of postponement again tonight in St. Louis, though it looks like the rain band may pull a little east by 8:30 p.m. game time.

The "deformation zone" is the name for the comma head part in Missouri, where the precipitation band "deforms" on the back side, gradually moving/diminishing from the west. A month or two from now that would probably be a major clocking from snow ... imagine trying to play a World Series game through that! For today, it's just a cold miserable rain.

It's a pretty chilly rain here too. Click here for a map of projected rainfall totals across Southwest Virginia from the National Weather Service in Blacksburg.

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Kevin Myatt works on the copy desk for The Roanoke Times and is its principal weather geek, writing a weekly weather column and advising the newsroom on weather topics. He helps guide students on a storm chasing trip to the central U.S. each May and was an editor for "Hurricanes and the Middle Atlantic States."

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