Dr. Kim Wood

And they have something called a warm core.

You know, if it's really hot out and you get some water on you, you're like, ah, you're finally cooling off.

Well, that's evaporative cooling.

So energy is being taken from your body to convert that liquid water into water vapor.

Well, when it goes the other way, when it condenses from water vapor into liquid water,

that heat is released into the air around it.

And that helps drive those billowing clouds that you see.

And a hurricane is also powered by that kind of what we call moist convection and that latent heat release.

And so that latent heat release contributes to the center of the cyclone being warmer than the air around it.

And so that's why we call it a warm core.

And physics dictates that when you have a warm core system, the strongest winds are closest to the surface, which is where we live, which is not great.

But that's also how we measure how strong a storm is.

What are those wind speeds closest to the surface, closest to the center?

Yep.

Yep.

It gets slowed down a little bit because of friction.

But that's why if you see reports from a hurricane hunter flying through a storm and it's like, oh, we measured winds of 100 knots.

But at the surface, it was like 85.

It's not because the storm's, quote unquote, weaker or something.

It's because friction slows down winds.