Meet the KDKA First Alert Weather Team
get the free app
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
Since June 2015, Ron Smiley has been giving a local and hopefully bright outlook on the day in Pittsburgh and Western Pennsylvania.
Born a Texan, Ron grew up in Little Rock, Arkansas, after his dad retired from the Air Force. He often times says that if he can grow up under a drill sergeants roof, than he can take anything that life can throw at him.
After graduating from Little Rock Catholic High, Ron pursued his degree at Arkansas Tech University. While there, he met his wife Michelle. Michelle and Ron have two children together.
Before arriving in Pittsburgh, Ron worked in Mississippi and Arkansas along with most recently New Orleans and Indianapolis. He says that his love for the weather developed at a young age as he loved to hang out in the garden and talk clouds with his neighbor Mr. Mike, an employee at the National Weather Service. Ron is a member of the American Meteorological Society and has been rewarded his AMS seal.
In Ron's free time, he loves to cook and explore with his family. You may catch him out and about on a Saturday morning running for a good cause or hanging with his family at a local park or museum. Ron also loves to bike, even though he admits it's a lot more challenging with Pennsylvania hills.
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.
Falicia Woody
Falicia Woody joined the KDKA First Alert Weather Team in March 2022. She is excited to be doing her dream job in Pittsburgh where she and her husband plan on setting up their lives.
Falicia is originally from Atlanta, Georgia, but her life journey has taken her many places across the country. In fact, Pennsylvania is the eighth state she has lived in. Her journey as a meteorologist started back in 2017. Most recently, she was up the street in Youngstown, Ohio, for over a year as a meteorologist for WKBN. Before that, she forecasted the ever-changing weather of Central Texas at KXXV in Waco. She fell in love with Pittsburgh while working at her first job as a meteorologist at WTRF in Wheeling, West Virginia.
Falicia graduated in May 2016 with her Bachelor's degree in Atmospheric Sciences and her Associate's degree in Electronic Journalism Arts from Lyndon State College (now Northern Vermont University-Lyndon) in Vermont. While at Lyndon State, she worked for the Vermont Center for Community Journalism (VCCJ-News 7), a student-run news station broadcasting to the Northeast Kingdom. She was also a Lead Weather Forecaster for the Vermont Department of Transportation. Falicia completed two summer internships at WSB-TV in Atlanta, Georgia and KOB-TV in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
Falicia was first bitten by the weather bug when she experienced a tornado warning in her area during Hurricane Ivan in 2004. Ever since then, her favorite weather phenomenon is hurricanes and even inspired her to write her senior thesis research on hurricane flooding risk communication.
Outside of the station, Falicia loves to take her dog, Bonnie, on long walks, tasting all the good food and traveling to new places. If you see her out in public, be sure to say hi and give some good Pittsburgh recommendations or advice!