Geographer: Because tropical storms require heat and moisture, they form especially over ocean surfaces of at least 26 degrees Celsius (79 degrees Fahrenheit), ocean temperatures that global warming would encourage  For this reason, many early discussions of global warming predicted that it would cause more frequent and intense tropical storms  But recent research shows that this prediction is unlikely to be borne out
Other factors, such as instabilities in wind flow, are likely to counteract global warming' s effects on tropical storm development
Tropical storms are especially likely to form over warm ocean surfaces.