Where does all this hot air come from, and how does it power the hurricanes strong winds?
The air in a hurricane’s center or eye is always warm relative to its surroundings, and this is what makes hurricanes a unique type of atmospheric vortex in the tropics. Hurricanes are also referred to as tropical cyclones. Outside the tropics, in the midlatitudes, giant storms which bring everyday weather to the United States (called extratropical cyclones) contain cold air in their center, and typically don’t feature anything that resembles a clear eye like the hurricane. So where does the warm air in the hurricane’s eye come from? The warmest air occurs at high levels, higher than five or six miles above the surface. Here, the temperature is commonly ten degrees warmer than surroundings, and can approach 15 or even 20 degrees in the most intense hurricanes. The warm air has its origins in the energy contained in the uppermost layer of seawater. The hot tropical sun warms the ocean surface, to values exceeding about 80 degrees Fahrenheit. The warm seawater readily evaporates. When li
