Oak Hills grad channels efforts into weather

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Thursday, July 2, 1998

BY JOHN KIESEWETTER
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Kim Pitula

Ever since 11-year-old Kim Pitula watched a 1974 tornado pass near her Monfort Heights home, she knew she wanted to be a meteorologist.

"That day is so imbedded in my brain. I remember that whole day what I was doing," said Kim Pitula Perez, 36, one of 25 on-camera meteorologists for the Atlanta-based Weather Channel.

Ms. Perez, seen 8 p.m.-3 a.m. Fridays through Mondays, recalled how her career course was set by the April 3, 1974, tornado that ripped through Sayler Park and Xenia.

That day heard weather warnings after coming home from St. Ignatius School. While her mother was preparing dinner, the family stood on the back porch of their Quaker Hill Drive home and watched the funnel cloud pass about 1 1/2 miles to the north, across Interstate 74. The powerful winds dropped canceled checks and other Sayler Park debris on their property.

She continued to track the storm on a map, while monitoring local TV and radio reports.

Now when people hear weather warnings, they often tune in the Weather Channel, available in 71.2 million homes.

Tuned into eights

Increasingly I find myself flipping to the Weather Channel for local radar reports "on the eights" -- at 8, 18, 28, 38, 48 and 58 minutes past every hour.

I've become an expert at catching local weather at 28 and 58 minutes past the hour -- during commercial breaks after sitcoms -- without missing a minute of my favorite shows. I routinely watch the 10:58 p.m. local weather before the 11 p.m. news.

"The Weather Channel has become more and more of a habit with people, as they have become more interested in the weather," said Kathy Lane, the channel's public relations director.

Many laughed when Landmark Communications, owners of the Roanoke, Va., Times launched the 24-hour service in 1982 to 3.2 million homes. In the past decade, it has grown dramatically, along with specialty cable channels for comedy, courts, cartoons, golf, history, homes and gardens.

Weather Channel subscriptions have increased by 42 percent since Ms. Perez joined the Weather Channel in 1991.

Perhaps you were surprised -- as I was -- to learn that a Cincinnati native was a prime-time forecaster on national cable TV.

"People who know me, know that I've always been interested in meteorology," the 1980 Oak Hills High School graduate said. She has never worked for or appeared on Tristate TV, although a WKRC-TV weatherman charted her future.

While at Oak Hills, she exchanged letters with Channel 12's Mike Fenwick, her favorite forecaster. His meteorological studies started in the U.S. Air Force.

Inspired by Mr. Fenwick, Ms. Perez enlisted in the Air Force, serving nine years as a meteorologist at Arizona and Nebraska air bases. After her discharge, she earned an atmospheric science degree from Creighton University in Omaha, Neb., in 1991, and immediately became a behind-the-scenes severe weather forecaster at the Weather Channel.

In 1995, she entered an apprentice program to work in front of the cameras. She became a full-time on-camera forecaster in April 1997.

Spotters in family

Her passion has rubbed off on her family. Her mother, Joan Pitula, and her sister, Lori Brucato, both are spotters for the National Weather Service, she says.

"They became interested in it after I became a meteorologist," said Ms. Perez, who is expecting her first child in September. Her husband is studying dentistry at New York University.

Ms. Perez has no interest in replacing Tim Hedrick, Rich Apuzzo, Steve Horstmeyer or other Cincinnati TV personalities.

"To me, the Weather Channel is it," she said. "Here you forecast for the whole country.

"At a local station, you can go days without the weather changing. It can be pretty boring. But at the Weather Channel, the weather is always exciting some place."

KIESEWETTER ARCHIVE