When a hurricane passes over an ocean, its powerful winds stir and mix the warm surface water with the colder, deeper water. This mixing results in warm water being forced down into the deep ocean and cold water being brought to the surface layer. Scientists know that the cold water near the surface is reheated by the atmosphere to pre-hurricane temperatures within a few weeks, but they have been less clear on what happens to the warm water mixed into the deep ocean. It has been suggested that this heat is transported toward the poles by ocean currents and contributes to the ocean heat transport, the process by which oceans regulate our climate by transporting warm water away from the equator and cold water toward the equator. It has also been speculated that the heat pumped into the ocean by hurricanes strengthens subsequent storms that pass over the same part of the ocean, because ocean heat is the energy source that powers hurricanes. Stronger storms would then mix even more heat into the ocean driving a positive feedback loop for hurricane intensity.