FERDINAND FURER
Weather Director / Meteorologist
As a kid growing up in Southern California, I spent most of my time outdoors playing sports. Whether I was surfing, skiing or playing other outdoor sports, I grew to appreciate Mother Nature and everything she has to offer. I was always reading the newspaper’s weather page and tuning in to local broadcasts to see if a storm was forming in the Pacific that would bring big waves or deep powder.
After high school I moved to Northern California to attend San Jose State University to pursue becoming a weatherman. I graduated with a degree in Radio-Television. However, my plans shifted from being a weather forecaster to being a newscast director. After ten years of directing newscasts in the San Francisco Bay Area, I realized it was time to get back to those childhood dreams.
In 2005 I stopped directing newscasts to go back to school to study Broadcast Meteorology. In 2009 I earned my Certificate of Broadcast Meteorology from Mississippi State University. The following year I earned a B.S. in Geosciences.
While in school I began producing weather segments at the same San Francisco Bay Area TV station where I began my television career. In the summer of 2009 I began forecasting on-air in the Monterey/Salinas area of the Central California Coast.
From California I headed way up north to the Northern Rockies and High Plains of Montana. This is where I got to forecast an extreme four season climate for the first time. In Montana I covered the record setting rainfall and snowpack that led to the record setting floods in the Spring of 2011. I was also lucky enough to cover tornados, 100+ degree heat-waves, and arctic outbreaks with temps 20-30 degrees below zero.
After a brief stint in the Desert Southwest, I headed back north Minot to get more of that extreme weather. I am no stranger to Minot as my wife, Jane Holum Furer, was raised here. In fact, Jane started her journalism career right here at KMOT. I am happy to call North Dakota home, and my North Dakota Mom gets to spend more time with her Grand Kids. Jane and I have two young daughters, Mabel and Fiona, and a pooch named Pico De Gallo.
