Didn't want to clog up the main board with this article... but as someone with no met training, I found it very interesting and quite informative... especially this bit here describing TS formation in "layman's" terms...

"But in stormy years like 2005, Atlantic sea surface temperatures are warming above 81 degrees. Without much wind shear, humid westerly winds from Africa's bulge grow stronger. The warmer ocean heats the air in a rising column, creating a center of moist low pressure.

"Trade winds rush in toward this depression. Combined with the planet's rotation, they spin clouds counterclockwise around this steamy core, or "eye" of the storm."

Allison