Meet Ethan Clark, Raleigh’s Favorite Weather Guy

The young man behind the popular NC Weather Authority platform explains how he got into the field and what it’s like to report on the Triangle’s tricky weather
by Addie Ladner

You’re not wrong about your rants regarding the weather here in Raleigh — it does indeed run unpredictable, anticlimactic and confusing. But Ethan Clark, arguably our state’s most popular grassroots weatherman, knows why: “Central North Carolina is a battleground area weather-wise.”

The reason, he explains, is the same one that we use as bragging rights, our proximity to both the mountains and the seas. “Because of where we are, the coast sends warmer air inland, and then the mountains have a big impact on this, which can make for changing and aggressive weather systems,” he says.

But for Clark, it’s thrilling. “Forecasting the weather is something new every day. I’m covering 100 counties and it’s all over the place. It’s never the same, especially for Raleigh, as we all know,” he says.

A Raleigh native, Clark became interested in weather as a young child. He remembers experiencing his first “real” snow around the 3rd or 4th grade, which planted a seed of curiosity. “It’s hard to imagine now, but at that time, I started going to the library to read whatever I could about the weather,” he says. That same year, he made his own weather station of a simple rain gauge and thermometer. Eventually he added a tablet.

By 2016, as a 7th grader at Oberlin Middle School, he started a twice-weekly email chain to his close friends and family called Ethan’s Weather, which he later changed the name to NC Weather Authority. The new name allowed him to keep his own identity under the radar, mostly not wanting his classmates to know that he was North Carolina’s grassroots weatherman. “I was trying not to act entirely like a nerd,” he says, laughing. The newsletter morphed into a Facebook page, then an Instagram page and a website. A few years in, he had several thousand followers and now has surpassed one million. People love Clark’s predictions for his thorough explanations of why certain weather is happening and his responsiveness to people’s questions.

In the fall of 2024, during Hurricane Helene, Clark went viral. He was credited with saving lives and helping residents in Western North Carolina find aid after expressing his concerns on social media about what he foresaw as catastrophic flooding in that area. “The amount of messages I got from folks saying I saved their lives or their friends or family was eye-opening and heart-warming. I never thought it would happen,” says Clark.

*Clark was awarded the Dogwood Award by Gov. Stein*

In 2025, he graduated from North Carolina State University with a degree in environmental science and a concentration in meteorology and natural disasters. Today, even though Clark’s platforms have more than 1 million followers and he’s received national media attention, his office is still humble and low-tech. His weather reporting center is a modest setup in his bedroom — which is what he prefers — and includes just a MacBook, iPad, large monitor and a drone for field work. His reporting is both thorough and personal, breaking down charts, details and patterns, but in a way that regular folks can understand and trust. He’s up early studying about 10 different weather models. He spends hours studying previous year’s weather patterns. But, he says, “real-time observations are as important as models.”

He also spends time reporting from the field. “The only time I was somewhat scared, or at least nervous, was during Hurricane Isaias in Brunswick County. I was riding out a pretty strong hurricane, and it caused significant flooding and homes caught on fire. So it was quite the experience,” he says. “I walk the line between careless and nervous.”

After working about 100 hours a week this winter with our snowstorms, Clark is gearing up for his favorite weather season: spring. With freezing temperatures one day, 80s the next and storms in between, it offers a lot of variety. “I don’t wish for destructive weather, but severe weather patterns do excite me,” Clark says. The recent drought and fires across the state have kept him busy, too.

This month marks 10 year’s of NC Weather Authority and Clark is still trying to grasp his popularity, but credits it to his clear interpretations and connection to his audience. “I interact with the public more than traditional media. I respond to messages, comments and questions as much as I can,” he says. “When we have severe weather, I can name every county or community group — people feel like they’re friends with me. Traditional forecasters are focused on exact temperatures or inches, but I care more about impact.”