Early last week, questions about Hurricane Erin flooded in to North Carolina’s Weather Authority from some of his nearly 800,000 Facebook followers. What’s happening on the Outer Banks and the Crystal Coast? Could Brunswick County beaches see a storm surge or Kitty Hawk get evacuated?
The meteorologist answered their questions in his usual calm, reassuring tone, issuing warnings when appropriate, including graphics about surge and rip currents expected in virtually every beach town along the hurricane’s path. “Be safe folks, follow the advice of local officials, and be glad we’re missing a direct landfall,” he assured them. “We will get through this storm just like we have all the others!”
His fans respond to his counsel as if they know him personally. “You are…everything,” one recently gushed.
They are getting detailed, thoroughly researched weather advice from a twenty-two-year-old college student.
Ethan Clark has always been obsessed with the weather. The Raleigh, North Carolina, native delivered forecasts for his elementary school’s morning TV announcements and, at age ten, dressed as the Weather Channel’s Jim Cantore for Halloween.
His parents told him they didn’t want him to use Facebook in seventh grade, but he launched “Ethan’s Weather” there anyway, showing it to them a few months later. Fortunately for Clark, they approved.
He took on the more ambitious moniker a year later, but he didn’t tell his fans he was a teen until his senior year, when he announced he was headed to college. The self-taught forecaster gained his expertise from books, YouTube videos, and online classes along with an internship at WRAL, where he arrived at 4:30 a.m. to assist with weather coverage and produce graphics.
Today, Clark posts from his bedroom between classes at NC State University, where he majors in environmental sciences, concentrating on natural disasters, meteorology, and climate change. When severe weather strikes, he’ll spend fifteen or more hours each day informing followers what’s happening. “I just assume I’m not sleeping much if a hurricane’s coming,” he says.
His attention to rural communities has endeared him to North Carolina’s small towns. Every morning he posts a state map with expected high temperatures from Avon on the coast to Cherokee in the mountains. During Hurricane Helene, which brought devastation to Western North Carolina last September, his guidance attracted thousands of new followers, accolades, and national attention.
One woman said his warnings about catastrophic flooding helped her convince her parents to evacuate and saved their lives. He shared a message about a pregnant woman who was trapped in Black Mountain and in labor; a follower later posted that the woman had been rescued. Then–N.C. attorney general and current governor Josh Stein presented Clark with the Dogwood Award, one of the state’s highest civilian honors. CBS later profiled and introduced Clark to his inspiration, Jim Cantore.
Following his graduation in December, Clark hopes to open a weather-consulting business to serve farmers, wedding planners, and other professionals who need detailed forecasts. North Carolina’s Weather Authority will continue, along with his passion for helping others.
His parents have been surprised and impressed with how his interest lasted over the years. At a recent visit to his family’s house for dinner, Clark held forth about the weather until they smiled and asked, “Do you want to talk about something else now?”
