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Article snippet: ATLANTA — At 8:06 on Friday morning, Nora Zimmett had a minor crisis on her hands. Ms. Zimmett, the senior vice president of programming for the Weather Channel, was in the control room here, monitoring the network’s rolling coverage of Hurricane Irma. The newsroom surrounding her was bathed in red lighting to signal that the network was in “severe mode,” and enormous screens displayed the powerful storm in swirling black and pink satellite imagery. But Ms. Zimmett was focusing on the monitor in front of her, which showed one of her star meteorologists, Jim Cantore, standing on a windy beach in Miami frantically waving off the cameras. His earpiece had malfunctioned just seconds before he was to be on live television. “Let’s fix that now,” Ms. Zimmett said tersely, and in an instant, her team cut to another anchor in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., and the broadcast continued without interruption. For most viewers, the Weather Channel is a utilitarian network, a quick stop on the basic cable lineup to check the day’s forecast. Best known for delivering local weather updates every 10 minutes, it competes for attention with programming as diverse as cooking shows and “Game of Thrones.” But as a pair of historic hurricanes disrupt large portions of the United States, the Weather Channel has never been more relevant, or more energized. For weeks now, the network has broadcast live nonstop, first as Hurricane Harvey inundated Texas, and now as Irma menaces Florida. Roughly 70 ... Link to the full article to read more