According to Dr. Mark Guishard, director of the Bermuda Weather Service, in order for a hurricane to form, certain conditions must exist.

The sea surface temperature must be higher than 82 degrees Fahrenheit and there must be a moist, unstable atmosphere. Add in a pre-existing disturbance, little or no wind shear and a distance of at least five degrees from the equator, and you have the right mix for a potential hurricane.

He said: “An unstable environment is when air near the surface is warm and buoyant enough to keep rising without being capped.

”The distance from the equator adds to the storms ability to spin due to the effect of the earth's rotation, a phenomenon known as the Coriolis Effect. It is interesting to note that hurricanes in the northern hemisphere always rotate in a counter-clockwise direction, while those in the southern hemisphere will rotate in a clockwise direction.

“As warm air rises, it begins to pull air in at the ocean's surface. The air then travels upwards through the core and out into the atmosphere, creating a cyclone effect. Condensation that develops in the centre portion of the core continues to heat up, thanks to a lack of surface level winds (shear) that would normally blow the storm apart.”

Dr. Guishard went on to say: “Typically, a hurricane will have a relatively well-defined eye, surrounded by a dense cloud, called the eyewall.

”Spinning out from the eyewall are rain bands, and dense cirrus cloud formations will cover the storm.

“The forward motion of the storm adds to the wind speeds on the right side of the storm to enhance surface winds of the storms that affect the northern hemisphere. Hurricane winds are typically strongest on the right side of the storm.”

This fact was evident when Hurricane Fabian struck Bermuda in 2003, as while the eye of the storm did not directly pass over the Island, the right side of the eyewall did, giving the Island the worst possible hit that Fabian could have offered.

“Fabian was also a part of a class of storms known as Cape Verde hurricanes, which are typically the most powerful and most destructive, these storms develop off the coast of Africa near the Cape Verde Islands as a result of African Easterly Waves otherwise known as 'tropical waves' coming off of the continent.”

Historically, the Cape Verde systems are much worse, but now we are seeing these Gulf storms.

“These Gulf storms can be slow moving and sit over water for long enough to build into powerful storms like Rita and Katrina from 2005,” Dr. Guishard pointed out.

“One of the greatest dangers resulting from any hurricane is storm surge, but damage can also be caused by high winds, tornadoes and heavy rain.

”Many people have been developing a growing concern about the increasing number of severe hurricanes in recent years.

“There has definitely been an upswing since 1995,” he admits.

While global warming has been blamed, the meteorologist said there are other issues to be examined:

“The point is not that one theory is true and the other is not, but that it is an ongoing body of research.”