James is the Morning Meteorologist at News 13 and comes to the Carolinas with 7 years of experience, including severe weather and hurricane forecasting.
Before moving to the Pee Dee and Grand Strand, James spent 3 years working WOWK/WVNS in Charleston, West Virginia where he got his fair share of snow forecasting.
Two of his three years in West Virginia, James was part of a morning team that won “Best AM Newscast” from the West Virginia Broadcasters Association, one was for his coverage of Super Storm Sandy. West Virginia also experiences quite a bit of severe weather and James was thrown in the mix early. He covered tornadoes on two different days in his first week of work and a Derecho later on that spring that caused wide-spread damage and knocked out power for much of the state, some for almost two weeks.
Before working at WOWK, James spent a little over a year in Savannah, Georgia at WJCL/WTGS forecasting his first passion, tropical weather. In that short time he got to forecast and track powerful Hurricane Irene as it moved up the coast, making landfall in The Outer Banks, North Carolina. He also had a big life change with the birth of his first and only child, a girl, on February 12th, 2011, Adarra Makenzie Hopkins.
James started his TV career across the country at KKCO-TV in Grand Junction, Colorado where he got his first taste of what a Colorado winter was like. From 105 in the summer to -23 and snow in the winter, western Colorado had many forecasting challenges. With four distinct seasons, severe weather, snow and annual monsoon rains, he gained a lot of experience in a short amount of time. He spent two years there, skiing and exploring the region with his college sweetheart, Amanda, who he married in the spring of 2010.
James has a degree in meteorology from Mississippi State University. When not at work he loves hanging out with his family at the beach or working on his classic ’47 Harley.
