A meteorologist, Hope was an expert on hurricanes and was a popular fixture on the Weather Channel. “He popularized hurricane forecasting,” said Mike Smith of WeatherData. “Before that, it was seen as something very arcane, but he helped make it something the public could understand. The importance of that is a marked decrease in the hurricane death rate.”
His training started during World War II. As a weatherman in the Army Air Corps, he learned about hurricanes, and their incredible power fascinated him. After the war, he joined the U.S. Weather Bureau, and helped start the National Hurricane Center in Miami in 1968 — just in time for Hurricane Camille, the only Stage 5 storm to hit the U.S. in 50 years. He later regretted naming Camille after his daughter — the storm caused $1.45 billion in damage and 256 deaths.
He moved to the Weather Channel in 1982, where he coordinated tropical storm coverage. He died June 13 of complications from open-heart surgery at age 83.