Meet the KDKA First Alert Weather Team
The KDKA First Alert Weather Team brings you the latest forecasts and weather information to keep you and your family safe and informed.
Meet our team of meteorologists below.
Ray Petelin
Meteorologist Ray Petelin joined the KDKA Weather Team in October 2018, but is no stranger to the weather in Pittsburgh and Western Pennsylvania. He has been forecasting in Pittsburgh since 2011 and in Western PA since January of 2003.
Ray has worked forecasting weather from Parkersburg, West Virginia, to Erie, Pennsylvania, and is well seasoned with the Pittsburgh region's micro-climates and lake effect snow. He likes to say he slid into Pittsburgh on a lake effect snow band and never left!
He holds seals of approval from both the American Meteorological Society and the National Weather Association and calls Meteorology is the "family business" because his father is also a meteorologist.
When Ray is not tracking the weather, he enjoys spending time with his wife and daughter. The Petelins have a cat and two rescue dogs, so they spend a lot of time outside and love exploring different parks and places in Western PA. Ray also enjoys brewing beer, fishing, hiking, taking naps and obsessing about the weather.
Mary Ours
Mary returns to KDKA after interning in 2011 while earning her Bachelor of Arts degree in broadcasting at Point Park University.
After graduating in 2012 she also earned her Broadcast Meteorology Certification through Mississippi State University.
Mary grew up about 45 minutes northwest of Pittsburgh in the small town of Beaver Falls, known as the hometown of Joe Namath. Mary went to high school there for three years before graduating from Lincoln Park Performing Arts Charter School in 2008 where she majored in musical theater.
She began her career in 2013 at WTOV9 in Steubenville, Ohio, where she was a reporter and weekend weather anchor then went to WJAC-TV as the weekday morning meteorologist in 2016.
Mary has always been interested in helping people ever since she was young, including starting her own event to help victims of 9/11 when she was 12 years old. In Mary's spare time she loves to sing the national anthem at sporting events, binge watch TV shows, and most importantly spend time with her husband, children and her pomsky Jasper.
Mary is ready to to bring you a lot of sunshine and the most up-to-date weather information to keep you safe!
Ron Smiley
For nearly a decade, Meteorologist Ron Smiley has been helping get the people of Western Pennsylvania get their mornings started off right with an upbeat and accurate weather report on KDKA.
Before landing in Pittsburgh, Ron forecasted in parts of Tornado Alley in Arkansas, tracked hurricanes in New Orleans, and dealt with his first real winter weather forecast in Indianapolis. There's not a lot in the way of weather that Ron hasn't seen. Even with 25 years in the business now, Ron still tries to treat every forecast with the respect it deserves.
"With all the microclimates in Western Pennsylvania, this is by far the hardest place I have ever forecast. There are no easy days when it comes to forecasting here in Western Pennsylvania. The weather here will humble you quickly."
In Ron's free time, you'll find him out at local festivals and markets with his two daughters, Haley and Chloe. You also may see him out with his fiancée, Bethany. Bethany also has two kids.
Kristin Emery
Meteorologist Kristin Emery joined the KDKA team in 2012 and is happy to be back home with family in Southwestern Pennsylvania. Kristin was born and raised in "little" Washington, graduated from Washington High School and earned her journalism degree at West Virginia University.
She started her weather career at WTOV-TV in Steubenville, Ohio, before moving on to forecast weather and report and anchor news at stations in Florida, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Maryland, North Carolina and Ohio. Kristin loves news reporting and telling people's stories, but her true love is forecasting the weather.
She completed her meteorological studies at Mississippi State University. She is an award-winning reporter and was nominated for an Emmy for her work covering the deadly tornado outbreak in Alabama in 2011.
Through the years, she has reported on everything from politics to sports to medicine, and covered every kind of weather event you can imagine including floods, blizzards, ice storms, mudslides, tornadoes and hurricanes. She cites Hurricane Andrew in Florida as one of her most memorable stories.
She is a member of the American Meteorological Society and the National Weather Association and holds seals of approval from both. Kristin is also a fellow of the RIAS Berlin Commission through RTDNA and reported from Germany on the 60th anniversary of the Berlin Airlift, issues surrounding German reunification and the formation of the European Union.
When she's not forecasting the weather, Kristin is outside enjoying it on the ski slopes, scuba diving and golfing. Kristin's favorite hobbies include travel and following Pittsburgh and WVU sports teams.