Kristi Gordon, BSc'02

Kristi Gordon is a senior meteorologist on Global News.

She was born and raised in White Rock and Crescent Beach and earned a science degree from UBC in physical geography and atmospheric science. She first became interested in weather patterns during her years as a sailing instructor in high school, but it was thanks to the meteorology courses of professors like Roland Stull (atmospheric science) and Ian McKendry (geography) that she decided to make forecasting the weather the basis of her career.

After university, Gordon spent several years working across Canada as both an operational and on‑air meteorologist. She started initially in Vancouver but lived in both Toronto and Edmonton, where she worked for almost every other network in the country before joining Global News.

Gordon says the hardest thing about her job is trying to communicate the details of a forecast for the entire province in just two minutes, but she loves the rush of being on live television, especially during major weather events.

When you’re in the business of predicting the weather, it may be an occupational hazard to get blamed from time to time for washed-out weddings or abandoned games of golf, but Gordon once attracted criticism for something entirely unconnected with the weather. When pregnant with her second child, she received complaints from some viewers over her baby bump and choice of clothing. She decided to fend them off by going public with some of the nastier mail on air, receiving a lot of empathy and support in response. “I won’t stop wearing fitted clothing from time to time,” she wrote, defiantly, on a Global News blog. “I would prefer to encourage change and acceptance rather than give in to the bellyachers.”

Gordon and her husband, Paul Klawer, have two sons: five-year-old Jordan and Braden, one. She likes sunny winter days when there’s a lot of snow on the mountains.

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What is your most prized possession?
A pair of really good left-handed scissors from my granny!

Describe the place you most like to spend time.
The beach.

What was the last thing you read?
The Glass Castle

What or who makes you laugh out loud?
Pretty much anyone or anything... after a few glasses of wine.

What’s the most important lesson you ever learned?
What other people think of me does not matter.

What’s your idea of the perfect day?
Spending it with my family, outside somewhere, AND I don’t have to make a single meal that I need to convince my kids to eat.

What was your nickname at school?
Gordo or Flash.

If a genie granted you one wish, what would it be?
To be able to heal major illnesses in the world.

What item have you owned for the longest time?
My flip flops. Is that gross?

What is your latest purchase?
A piñata. No, not for me – for my son’s birthday. I would have filled it with potato chips and mini bottles of wine if it was for me.

Whom do you most admire (living or dead) and why?
Mothers who can enjoy amidst chaos. Needless to say, that is not me.

What would you like your epitaph to say?
Kristi enjoyed life. She loved and appreciated the people around her. Generous, caring and helpful.

If you could invent something, what would it be?
A cure for cancer.

In which era would you most like to have lived, and why?
I would like to have been born just one generation before me, when buying a house was possible!

What are you afraid of?
Spiders.

Name the skill or talent you would most like to have.
I would like to be able to sing. I’d settle for being able to sing Happy Birthday in key.

Which famous person (living or dead) do you think (or have you been told) you most resemble?
Jennifer Aniston, but other than our oversized noses, I don’t really see a resemblance.

What is your pet peeve?
Slow drivers.

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