“You can think of a hurricane as a heat engine where the ocean is the fuel … so giving it warmer water is basically like higher-octane fuel,” Hazelton said.

Hurricanes are heat engines, extracting thermal energy from “oceanic heat content.”

“Over the ocean, because the moisture supply is there for the heat engine, you’re constantly stirring the tea,” he said.

Theory suggests that a warming climate should make the strongest tropical cyclones stronger, since hurricanes are heat engines that extract heat energy from the oceans, converting it to kinetic energy in the form of wind.

That’s because hurricanes are complex, massive rotating heat engines, Emanuel says, fueled by a favorable combination of warm ocean water, moist air, and consistent atmospheric winds.