Warmer Seas Linked To Strengthening Hurricanes

No surprise. It's been known for years that hurricanes are strengthened by warmer water. If you watch the progression of tropical waves to tropical depressions to tropical storms to hurricanes, you can see that they tend to get stronger as they move to areas with warmer water. In fact, this is the first time I've seen any equivocation on the fact that hurricanes are fueled by warm water. Maybe they they have to worry about losing federal funding?

An interesting site to watch this is

http://www.wunderground.com/tropical/

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/09/080903134323.htm

ScienceDaily (Sep. 3, 2008) — The theory that global warming may be contributing to stronger hurricanes in the Atlantic over the past 30 years is bolstered by a new study led by a Florida State University researcher. The study will be published in the Sept. 4 edition of the journal Nature.

Using global satellite data, FSU geography Professor James B. Elsner, University of Wisconsin-Madison Professor James P. Kossin and FSU postdoctoral researcher Thomas H. Jagger found that the strongest tropical cyclones are, in fact, getting stronger -- and that ocean temperatures play a role in driving this trend. This is consistent with the "heat-engine" theory of cyclone intensity.

"As seas warm, the ocean has more energy that can be converted to tropical cyclone wind," Elsner said. "Our results do not prove the heat-engine theory. We just show that the data are quite consistent with it."