The nice thing about John Hope is he would cut through the BS with the other forecasters getting all excited and gloom and doomy about the storms. He had a way of calming people down yet being deadly serious. Back then, the Weather Channel was a great source for information. Now, they are just another news network.
The programming format of the Weather Channel (i.e., cutting away every six minutes for commercials and local forecasts) seems to work against them when major breaking weather stories happen. Last summer I found coverage on CNN and FOX far superior to the WC when reporting on the FLA hurricanes.