I am having a ball with Thugs / Storm.
I don't use Hurricane and I only use Gale when I need to but I have a nice single target heal and I get two decent CC powers in Freezing Rain and Thunderclap. Doesn't matter if I'm in a group or solo, draw the packs in, freezing rain. When that wears off, Thunderclap. By the time the packs dead, Freezing Rain has recycled and is ready to use again. Really helps mitigate damage.
As for Gale, I'm using that when I need to. For both solo and grouping. Too much damage coming in to keep up on heals, gale everything back, gives FR and TC time to recharge and to heal, or retreat and regroup.
Snow Storm is great when fighting purple bosses or LT's, it slows everything way down. Got a runner, pop ST on em. They are going no where fast!
Not a fan of Hurricane. I tried it solo a few times, didn't like it. Might try it again just to play with it. Not a huge fan.
Looking forward to lightning storm and Tornado when the time comes.