Often a high pressure system drives the winds. The winds come off the mountain passes, the air heats up and becomes very dry and can be very strong.

If we look out into our future, global warming will have a longer impact, which makes it somewhat scary.

The magic number is 80 degrees Fahrenheit. What we are seeing in the Atlantic right now is temperatures that are 82 to 86 degrees Fahrenheit, almost two to four degrees above their normal temperatures.

Essentially what happened was that quantitatively we had our fingers on the pulse of the global oceans for the first time in history. We collected more data in the first year than they had in the previous century of data.

I call her the little lady with the big dry punch.

Really, the ocean is simply the fuel tank for these great hurricanes, and right now, I would characterize the South Atlantic as high octane.