The question of hurricanes and their relationship to climate change (“global warming”) has come up a few times recently, so I’m making a few notes here:
“Increasing destructiveness of tropical cyclones over the past 30 years”:http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/vaop/ncurrent/abs/nature03906.html,
(abstract) from Nature.
“The links between hurricanes and climate change”:http://www.ucsusa.org/global_environment/global_warming/page.cfm?pageID=1529,
from the Union of Concerned Scientists.
It certainly looks like the models of cyclone strength as related to sea surface temperature are well developed and useful in predicting future trends. I personally think they provide enough support for a causal link meme, namely “these storms are getting worse because of global warming”, even if that meme gets oversimplified in transmission.