How to Turn Off Weather on a Midland Walkie Talkie
You can turn off weather on a Midland walkie talkie in a few seconds, and it does not mean your radio is broken. The weather channels are just NOAA broadcasts on 162.400 to 162.550 MHz that Midland builds into most of its models, so one stray key press drops you into a nonstop forecast.
Last month a buddy of mine called me convinced his brand new Midland was done for. It kept reading out the marine forecast and would not come back to the trail no matter which channel button he pushed. He had tapped the WX key once, and that is how a midland weather radio works when you are not expecting it.
Why does my Midland suddenly pick up weather channels?
The WX key is the short answer. On most Midland models it sits right above the keypad, and one press switches the radio to the NOAA weather band. That band is seven channels packed into 162.400-162.550 MHz, carrying continuous forecast loops plus weather alert tones for your county.
What trips people up is scan mode. If you press scan while sitting on the weather band, the radio keeps hunting for active NOAA signals and looks like it is searching on its own. It is not broken, it is just following the manual.
How do I turn off the weather channels?
Press the WX key again, or hold it for a couple of seconds depending on the model, and you flip back to the regular FRS or GMRS channels where the rest of your group is. Newer models also have a menu option called WX Alert or NOAA Alert, and switching that off stops the radio from cutting into your conversation with severe weather reports.
Check your exact model before you poke around, because Midland rearranges the menus between the T-Series, GXT, and XT lines. I have turned off weather on three different Midland models and the button moved every single time.
What if the weather frequencies are stuck in the scan list?
If your Midland keeps landing on a NOAA frequency during scan, the weather channels are saved in the scan list. Open the menu, find the scan list edit, and remove the WX entries, or clear the list and rebuild it. A factory reset also wipes the scan list back to default, which fixes it in one shot but takes your saved channels and emergency channels memory with it.
One thing to know before you set noaa off for good: weather alerts only fire while the radio is in weather mode or the WX alert feature is on. Kill it completely and you will not hear a tornado warning at 2 a.m., and in storm season that is a real tradeoff, not a fake one.
Is it worth keeping the weather feature on?
Honestly, I leave WX alert on during spring and turn it off the rest of the year, because the test tones and county updates get old when you are just talking to your family on a hike. The good news is it takes ten seconds to flip either way.
If you are shopping and want the weather band built in, most of the two way radios on the market include it, but not all of them make it easy to switch off. Midland does it better than most, which is why the Midland weather alert radios stay popular with hunters and hikers. If yours keeps slipping into the forecast, you now know the fix, and if your model behaves differently than mine, drop a comment, because they change these menus every few years.
