“Madison brings a bright energy to the newsroom already,” Smith wrote. “I can’t wait for y’all to catch her on the weekend evening newscasts!”
“I am so excited to be here,” Hartin said during her on-air introduction. “Obviously a really different weather pattern.”
Hartin said she has spent the past eight years chasing tornadoes through college and her first television market. Among the craziest weather she’s encountered was “DVD-sized hail.”
“I’ve always been fascinated by Gulf weather and tropical weather, but we don’t get a lot of hurricanes out there in Lubbock, Texas,” she said. “Really excited to get my hands dirty with some hurricane coverage.”
Corpus Christi isn’t entirely unfamiliar territory for Hartin. Her mother grew up in Rockport, where Hartin visited as a child, and she still has friends and family across the Coastal Bend.
“I feel like I’m in really good company here,” she said.
Hartin is also eager to get to the beach, though she joked that arriving around the Fourth of July was poor timing for someone who isn’t a fan of crowds. “Once the Fourth of July crowds and the tourists clear out, I definitely want to go down there and put my toes in the sand,” she said.
Hartin said her love of science and communication drew her to meteorology, a field she said allowed her to “marry my two passions.” Growing up in Texas also made weather difficult to ignore because “it impacts everything we do here.”
The Austin native graduated from Texas Tech University, where she worked for the student news organization MCTV. According to local media blogger Mike McGuff, Hartin is a cousin of KCBD NewsChannel 11 anchor Christy Hartin.
Hartin will appear on KIII’s weekend evening newscasts at 6 and 10 p.m. on Saturday, and at 5:30 and 10 p.m. on Sunday.
Chron has reached out to Hartin and KIII for comment.