New KDKA-TV morning and noon meteorologist Valerie Abati has a knack for bringing extreme weather conditions with her to a new town.

"I think this is the first place I've been that there hasn't been some catastrophic weather phenomenon in my first week," Abati said. "When I started in Erie, there was a tornado warning five minutes before we went on the air. In West Virginia, they had the biggest snowstorm, 3 feet of snow. I remember walking on the snow and I literally had to dig down to get my car out. In Chattanooga and Cincinnati, I came around the time of hurricanes, and there was flooding.

"Watch out, something's gonna happen!" she said with a laugh.

And her first week in Pittsburgh earlier this month? It was abnormally warm and sunny.

"This time, it was a good thing, not a bad thing," she said. "I'm glad to say I brought that."

Chatting amiably while having her photo taken in the KDKA weather center, Abati (pronounced A-bay-tee) excuses a mess that's not much of a mess at all. She also shows off the slippers she keeps in a drawer.

"My first day they yelled at me because my shoes were too loud and I'm always walking through the studio [to the anchor desk or weather wall or weather center]," she said. "So now I put on my slippers or sneakers."

Abati, who grew up in the town of Conneaut Lake, Crawford County, joined KDKA after three years at the Fox affiliate in Cincinnati. Before that she had jobs at TV stations in Chattanooga, Tenn., Clarksburg, W.Va., and a summer internship at WJET in Erie after she graduated from Penn State with a bachelor's degree in meteorology. Abati also holds the AMS seal and will pursue the new Certified Broadcast Meteorologist seal -- held by WPXI's Mike LaPoint and WTAE's Don Schwenneker -- this winter.

Although she graduated from Penn State in 2002, twentysomething Abati was set on her path toward meteorology after taking a course in the subject her freshman year at Slippery Rock University. She later transferred to Penn State.

"That's when I realized I could do it," she said. "I actually wanted to do communications, but I'm more of a math and science person. This was a way to do both. Most people don't understand that going to Penn State for meteorology is like getting an engineering degree. People think you just look at clouds, but I took [many] levels of physics, all these calculus classes."

At WXIX in Cincinnati, Abati also worked on morning newscasts, so she's accustomed to the hours -- awake by 2 a.m., at KDKA by 3 a.m.

"I can't complain about it, but it's hard to get used to when you don't have kids or a family and you're trying to be social," she said. "I'm going to bed at 7 or 8 at night."

Abati said she likes to be active -- volleyball, golf -- and she's exploring Pittsburgh as much as possible. Though she grew up near here, she's never lived in the city before.

"In Cincinnati I tried to explore every restaurant and bar I could, and that's kind of why I got my new job, to try new things, to try everything," she said. "One of the things I really like about Pittsburgh is its mom and pop shops. In America you can get so used to chains, and this is so different. I like that."

Abati said spring is her favorite season because, "I'm just a spring person," and it's when the weather starts to get most active. She likes the idea of doing live shots when there's snow, as long as she has the gear for it -- boots, warm coat and a hat -- but otherwise she'd rather be inside.

"I have a love/hate relationship with the wind," she said. "I hate it in winter and love it in summer when it's windy and warm."

Because we get some, uh, doozy questions by phone on a daily basis at the TV desk, let's try to deflect at least one that's bound to come from viewers who listen to their television but don't actually read the names displayed: Although their names sound alike, Abati is not related to morning and noon news anchor Sonni Abatta.

"It's something we had a laugh about before I got here," Abati said. "I haven't been asked if we're related yet, but I haven't been out much. I'm sure it will happen."

KDKA.com has played with the similar-sounding names in an online slide show, "You Say Abatta, I Say Abati?!"

Channel surfing

NBC's "Today" will broadcast from the ends of the Earth, literally, from Nov. 5-9, with Matt Lauer in the Arctic, Ann Curry in Antarctica and Al Roker at the equator in Mindo, Ecuador. Meredith Vieira stays home in New York. ... USA Network has picked up its summer miniseries with Debra Messing, "The Starter Wife," as a series to air next year. ... Fox's latest reality competition series, "The Next Great American Band," premieres at 8 tonight. It was not available for review. ... The CW has canceled Sunday night show "Online Nation" ... Fox has renewed "Kitchen Nightmares" for a second season.

TV Q&A

This week's TV Q&A responds to questions about ads on WPXI, Jerry Seinfeld's "Bee Movie" minisodes on NBC and HBO's "Five Days." Read it online at post-gazette.com/tv.

'View' co-star on leave

Elisabeth Hasselbeck, a co-host of ABC's "The View," will go on maternity leave next month, a show spokesman said. Hasselbeck, 30, will leave the popular New York-based daytime talk show beginning Nov. 8 or 9. Various celebrity guests will fill in for her while she is on leave.

(Associated Press)