Edgar McGregor is an American

climate activist The climate movement is a global social movement focused on pressuring governments and industry to take action (also called ''climate action'') addressing the causes and impacts of climate change. Citizens and environmental non-profit organizat ...

and

meteorologist A meteorologist is a scientist who studies and works in the field of meteorology aiming to understand or predict Earth's atmosphere of Earth, atmospheric phenomena including the weather. Those who study meteorological phenomena are meteorologists ...

from

Pasadena, California Pasadena ( ) is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States, northeast of downtown Los Angeles. It is the most populous city and the primary cultural center of the San Gabriel Valley. Old Pasadena is the city's original commerci ...

. He works for the

Los Angeles County Department of Parks and Recreation The Los Angeles County Department of Parks and Recreation is an agency of the County of Los Angeles which oversees its parks and recreational facilities. It was created in 1944. It operates and maintains over of parks, gardens, lakes, natural ga ...

as a recreation services leader. Starting in 2019, his long-term volunteer efforts to clean up

Eaton Canyon Eaton Canyon is a major canyon beginning at the Eaton Saddle near Mount Markham and San Gabriel Peak in the San Gabriel Mountains in the Angeles National Forest, United States. Its drainage flows into the Rio Hondo river and then into the Los ...

and other public parks removed thousands of pounds of trash over several years. In 2023, McGregor began providing localized weather forecasts through social media and the Altadena Weather and Climate

Facebook page Facebook is a social-network service website launched on February 4, 2004, by Mark Zuckerberg. The following is a list of software and technology features that can be found on the Facebook website and mobile app and are available to users of ...

. His warnings during the

Eaton Fire The Eaton Fire was a highly destructive wildfire in Los Angeles County, California, Los Angeles County, in Southern California. The fire began on the evening of January 7, 2025, in Eaton Canyon in the San Gabriel Mountains, and a powerful S ...

in 2025 were credited with helping residents evacuate and avoid harm.

Early life and education

McGregor was born to Edgar McGregor III and Melinda McGregor in

. As a child, he developed an interest in weather, often walking in the rain and observing weather patterns. His fascination with

extreme weather Extreme weather includes unexpected, unusual, severe weather, severe, or unseasonal weather; weather at the extremes of the historical distribution—the range that has been seen in the past. Extreme events are based on a location's recorded weat ...

was heightened after experiencing a severe Santa Ana windstorm in December 2011, which caused substantial damage in the

San Gabriel Valley The San Gabriel Valley (), sometimes referred to by its initials as SGV, is one of the principal valleys of Southern California, with the city of Los Angeles directly bordering it to the west and occupying the vast majority of the southeastern ...

. In 2021, McGregor studied natural sciences at

Pasadena City College Pasadena City College (PCC) is a Public college, public community college in Pasadena, California. It was founded in 1924 as Pasadena Junior College. History Pasadena City College was founded in 1924 as Pasadena Junior College. It originally o ...

. He attended

San Jose State University San José State University (San Jose State or SJSU) is a Public university, public research university in San Jose, California. Established in 1857, SJSU is the List of oldest schools in California, oldest public university on the West Coast of ...

, where he studied

meteorology Meteorology is the scientific study of the Earth's atmosphere and short-term atmospheric phenomena (i.e. weather), with a focus on weather forecasting. It has applications in the military, aviation, energy production, transport, agricultur ...

with an emphasis on

climatology Climatology (from Greek , ''klima'', "slope"; and , '' -logia'') or climate science is the scientific study of Earth's climate, typically defined as weather conditions averaged over a period of at least 30 years. Climate concerns the atmospher ...

. During his undergraduate studies, he interned at

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the federal government of the United States, US federal government responsible for the United States ...

Jet Propulsion Laboratory The Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) is a Federally funded research and development centers, federally funded research and development center (FFRDC) in La Cañada Flintridge, California, Crescenta Valley, United States. Founded in 1936 by Cali ...

Career and activism

As a teenager, McGregor joined school strikes advocating for climate action, inspired by Swedish environmental activist

Greta Thunberg Greta Tintin Eleonora Ernman Thunberg (; born 3January 2003) is a Swedish climate activist, climate and political activist initially known for challenging world leaders to take immediate action to climate change mitigation, mitigate the effec ...

. In May 2019, he began a cleanup project at

, a park near his home, which he initially expected to complete in 10 to 20 days. The project ultimately lasted 589 consecutive days, during which he worked daily in diverse weather conditions to remove trash from the park. McGregor documented his efforts on

social media Social media are interactive technologies that facilitate the Content creation, creation, information exchange, sharing and news aggregator, aggregation of Content (media), content (such as ideas, interests, and other forms of expression) amongs ...

, particularly

Twitter Twitter, officially known as X since 2023, is an American microblogging and social networking service. It is one of the world's largest social media platforms and one of the most-visited websites. Users can share short text messages, image ...

, encouraging others to undertake similar initiatives. By 2022, he had spent nearly 1,000 days cleaning Eaton Canyon, removing over 15,000 pounds of trash, and donating proceeds from recycling to various environmental causes. In 2023, McGregor launched the Altadena Weather and Climate

, providing localized

weather forecasts Weather is the state of the atmosphere, describing for example the degree to which it is hot or cold, wet or dry, calm or stormy, clear or cloud cover, cloudy. On Earth, most weather phenomena occur in the lowest layer of the planet's atmo ...

for his community. During the

in January 2025, his real-time evacuation warnings were credited with helping residents prepare and avoid harm. As of 2025, McGregor also works for the

as a recreation services leader.

Personal life

As of 2025, McGregor lives in his childhood home in Altadena.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:McGregor, Edgar Living people Date of birth missing (living people) People from Altadena, California Pasadena City College alumni San Jose State University alumni Amateur meteorologists American climate activists Activists from California American meteorologists 21st-century American scientists Scientists from California