This article appears in the July 2011 issue of LouisvilleMagazine. To subscribe, please visit loumag.com.
Kevin Harned, 35, started at WAVE in 1998 and became chief meteorologist last September, when John Belski retired.
Louisville Magazine: “Your first weather memory?”
Kevin Harned: “As a kid? Being scared of thunderstorms, especially at night. I can remember begging my parents to let me sleep in their room and my brother to let me in his room. Always the answer was, ‘No, go to bed.’
“When I was in the seventh grade, I invited John Belski to come down (to New Haven, Ky.) and speak to our 4-H Club. Ever since then, that’s what I always wanted to do.”
LM: “Some viewers only watch you when there are dangerous storms in the area. Is there a certain segment of the population that associates you with stressful weather — or with breaking into The Office?”
KH: (laughs) “I’ve never viewed it like that. There are times when you feel like you’re crying wolf, even though you know the potential is there. I prefer that people associate me with 70-degree sunny days, but we haven’t seen many of those lately.”
LM: “We get everything in Louisville — flooding, windstorms, ice storms. In what U.S. city would a meteorologist have the easiest job?”
KH: “San Diego, maybe? ‘Morning fog burns off, sunny later in the afternoon, highs in the mid-80s.’ It’d pretty much be that every day.”
— Josh Moss
