KSFY News - Sioux Falls, SD News, Weather, SportsKORY HARTMAN - Forecaster

Kory Hartman is KSFY's weekend forecaster and storm chaser.

Kory has worked in the media industry for 17 years.  He started his broadcast career at his hometown radio station in Iron River, Michigan. There's not much severe weather in the Upper Peninsula, but Kory spent summers on a farm near Garretson and quickly became fascinated by severe storms and tornadoes.

Kory moved to South Dakota in 1997, and worked at a radio station in Madison, SD. He was on the air giving weather reports on May 30, 1998, the night of the massive F4 Spencer, SD tornado which wiped most of the town off the map.

To see the devastation caused by a violent tornado, Kory joined up with the volunteer cleanup effort in Spencer, and broadcast live from the scene. It was an experience he will never forget. He immediately knew he needed to learn how to spot and chase storms, to help protect the public, and attended his first NWS spotter training course the following spring. Kory has made severe weather coverage the number one priority everywhere he has worked.

In 2004, Kory became one of the first storm chasers to broadcast live video from his vehicle. Once the technology was perfected, Kory helped form SevereStudios.com in 2007 and began streaming live tornado video for free to a mass audience via the Internet.  SevereStudios now has nearly 40 contracted storm chasers that regularly supply video to local TV stations like KSFY and also national media outlets like The Weather Channel, CNN, and Discovery.

On a storm chase June 11, 2008, Kory was hit by the Little Sioux, IA tornado. While trying to get away from a dangerous situation, he made a wrong turn and drove directly into the path of a rain-wrapped tornado. During the event, Kory's dash cam streamed the encounter live to WOWT-TV in Omaha, NE, thus Kory also became the first person in history to stream live video from inside a tornado.

Kory is married and has two sons, ages 8 and 5.

During the week, Kory is also KSFY's Web and IT Manager.

To reach Kory, email khartman@ksfy.com

visit www.severestudios.com