Off the Radar

Off the Radar

Join National Weather Desk Meteorologist Emily Gracey every week as she leads listeners on an exciting voyage exploring a diverse range of topics related to weather, climate, space, and beyond. The podcast offers exclusive interviews with leading experts on topics that you wouldn't usually come across in a typical weather broadcast. It’ll enlighten, entertain, and educate, whether you’re a novice weather follower to the most passionate weather geek.

Episodes

The Dust Bowl

December 2, 2025 • 43 mins
In the 1930s, the Great Plains transformed from a land of promise into an apocalyptic landscape of suffocating dust storms. For nearly a decade, massive black clouds swept across 150,000 square miles of Oklahoma, Kansas, Texas, Colorado, and New Mexico, turning day into night and forcing families to abandon their homes. Dust storms lasted for days at a time, reducing visibility to zero. People coughed up clumps of earth and develop...
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Happy Thanksgiving!

November 25, 2025 • 2 mins
Here's a special message from OTR host, Emily Gracey.
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The Forecast for your Lungs

November 18, 2025 • 27 mins
Dr. David Beuther, a pulmonologist, reveals how climate change is creating a quiet respiratory health crisis - one where patients with lung disease are increasingly trapped indoors by poor air quality. In this conversation, we explore the growing impact wildfire smoke, extended pollen seasons, and shifting weather patterns are having on our ability to breathe. Dr. Beuther shares practical strategies for protecting lung health, from...
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The Space Debris Dilemma

November 11, 2025 • 46 mins
In January 2025, astronomers mistook Elon Musk's space-launched Tesla Roadster for a asteroid. It took seventeen hours to realize the "near-Earth object" was actually a seven-year-old sports car orbiting the Sun. We're losing track of what we've sent into space. This week, Emily sits down with Dr. Jonathan McDowell, an astrophysicist at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics who has tracked every rocket and satellite la...
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iCyclone: Inside the World's Deadliest Storms with Josh Morgerman

November 4, 2025 • 28 mins
When Hurricane Melissa, a catastrophic Category 5 storm with 185 mph winds, slammed into Jamaica last week, the world's top hurricane chaser Josh Morgerman was there by choice. For 36 hours after the eyewall passed over him, he went silent, leaving his followers worried and waiting. In this episode, Emily sits down with Josh to explore his incredible three-decade career chasing more than 80 hurricanes and typhoons around the globe...
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Fearing the Weather: From Trauma to Recovery

October 28, 2025 • 44 mins
Have you ever felt anxious about the weather, or wondered if you should cancel plans due to the forecast? You're not alone. In this episode, we sit down with Dr. Millicent Rose, a Professor of Clinical Psychology at Pepperdine University, to explore the often-overlooked intersection of weather and mental health. Dr. Rose discusses the causes behind weather-related fears, phobias, and trauma, and explains the various treatment optio...
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Old Mysteries, New Tools: Remote Sensing and the Search for Amelia Earhart

October 21, 2025 • 37 mins
For 88 years, Amelia Earhart's disappearance over the Pacific Ocean remained unsolved—until a casual discovery on Apple Maps changed everything. In 2020, an anomaly spotted in satellite imagery off a remote Pacific island reignited the search for her lost Lockheed Electra, and this November, researchers will finally investigate what may be the wreckage of her plane. But the Earhart case is just the beginning. In this episode, we ex...
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Weather Wisdom for the Seasons Ahead

October 14, 2025 • 36 mins
Since 1792, The Old Farmer's Almanac has been helping Americans prepare for the seasons ahead - and it's still going strong 233 years later. In this episode, Emily sits down with Carol Connare, editor-in-chief of The Old Farmer's Almanac, to uncover the secrets behind their famous long-range forecasts and explore the publication's fascinating history. Carol shares surprising finds from centuries-old editions, along with old-world w...
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Meghan Lynn's Viral Hurricane Playbook

October 7, 2025 • 27 mins
Seven years after losing her home to Hurricane Michael, content creator Meghan Lynn has found an unexpected calling: making hurricane preparedness go viral. She lives just outside of Tallahassee and experienced the Category 5 hurricane firsthand. Rather than let it defeat her, she used this traumatic experience as an opportunity. Now she educates millions through social media. The secret to her perseverance as well as her social m...
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Climate Blackout: Censoring Science, Endangering Lives

September 30, 2025 • 33 mins
In May 2025, the U.S. government shut down Climate.gov and fired hundreds of NOAA employees, censoring vital climate change information that American taxpayers had already funded. This shocking act of climate science censorship mirrors a disturbing pattern in American history that goes back 75 years. From the lead poisoning cover-up of the 1920s to today's climate information blackout, this episode is all about America's troubling ...
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Hispanic Representation in Weather

September 23, 2025 • 29 mins
Maria Torres turned her childhood fascination with Puerto Rican storms into a groundbreaking career at the National Hurricane Center, where she serves as the first female Public Affairs Officer and bilingual spokesperson. In this special Hispanic Heritage Month episode, Maria shares her inspiring journey from a curious child watching lightning, to becoming the trusted Spanish-language voice that delivers life-saving hurricane warni...
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The Fall Foliage Forecaster

September 16, 2025 • 26 mins
For decades, fall foliage maps were mostly guesswork. Then meteorologist Evan Fisher, founder of Explore Fall, revolutionized leaf peeping by combining weather data with real-time observations to create the most accurate fall forecasts ever made. In this episode, Evan explains how this year's unusual weather is affecting autumn colors nationwide, demonstrates how his data archive can show you exactly what fall looked like when you ...
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The Year Without Summer

September 9, 2025 • 44 mins
In 1816, the world experienced something unthinkable: a year without summer. Mount Tambora's catastrophic eruption in Indonesia – the most powerful volcanic blast in recorded history – sent eighty times more ash than Mount St. Helens into the atmosphere, blocking sunlight globally and altering weather patterns worldwide. Thousands of miles from the volcano, people witnessed blood-red sunsets and snow falling in June. Crops failed, ...
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From the Vault: NOAA Hurricane Hunters - Laboratories in the Sky

September 2, 2025 • 41 mins
As the 2025 hurricane season ramps up, we are bringing back this fan favorite from last year. This month marks the 64th anniversary of when Hurricane Carla battered the coast of Texas, instantly becoming one of the most intense and damaging hurricanes recorded in the state. But as houses and ships were battened down and residents fled the storm, some individuals with the Weather Bureau did the unthinkable: they strapped themselves...
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I Was There: Hurricane Katrina 20 Years Later

August 26, 2025 • 24 mins
This week marks 20 years since Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans and the surrounding areas. It's a sobering reminder that human lives are at the center of weather forecasting and climate conversations. Today, Emily is going off the radar with Traci Curry, director of the new National Geographic docuseries "Hurricane Katrina: Race Against Time." We'll also hear from Shelton Alexander, a New Orleans resident who survived the h...
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Smoke Without Borders: Wildfires, Air Quality, and the Climate Connection

August 19, 2025 • 30 mins
This summer's devastating wildfire season has sent smoke across county, state, and even international borders, affecting air quality thousands of miles away from the flames. Host Emily Gracey dives deep into the science behind the haze, exploring why wildfire seasons are stretching longer each year and how a changing climate is literally adding fuel to the fire. You'll discover the invisible dance between smoke and weather systems ...
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Jim Cantore: Weathering Life

August 12, 2025 • 42 mins
For nearly four decades, Jim Cantore has been America's most trusted voice in extreme weather. But in this deeply personal conversation, Emily sits down with the meteorological icon to explore the man behind the legend. Jim opens up about his New England childhood and the path that led him to The Weather Channel's early days, when cable television was still finding its footing. He shares candid stories from those formative years th...
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Meteorologist On Set

August 5, 2025 • 27 mins
When the cameras start rolling, there’s one person film and TV productions can’t do without — the meteorologist. This week on Off the Radar, host Emily Gracey is joined by The National Weather Desk’s summer intern Ben Tomfohrde to talk with Brett Zweiback, the on-set weather expert trusted to keep high-budget shoots safe when the weather turns. From hit TV shows like Stranger Things and The Walking Dead to blockbuster films like Ju...
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NOAA Weather Radio: Old Tech, New Relevance

July 29, 2025 • 37 mins
When Hurricane Helene knocked out cell towers for weeks and Texas floods left communities without power or internet, one piece of technology kept working: NOAA Weather Radio. In this essential emergency preparedness episode, we explore why this 50-year-old analog technology is more critical than ever in our digital age. The episode opens with a powerful story from Dr. Neil Jacobs, incoming NOAA Administrator, about how a weather ra...
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After the Flood: Finding Hope in the Aftermath

July 22, 2025 • 44 mins
On July 4th, 2024, flash flooding in the Texas Hill Country claimed multiple lives, including children, leaving a nation searching for answers. In this essential episode, host Emily Gracey talks with Dr. Kim Klockow McClain - NOAA meteorologist, social scientist, and mother - about how we move forward from tragedy. Dr. McClain explains why flash flood warnings are more complex than they appear, addresses the conspiracy theories tha...
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