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Hurricanes are “warm core” (tropical) storms. They’re powered by rising masses of warm, moist air, usually over an ocean. As long as the storm has more warm, moist air, it can continue and intensify.
Most (non-tropical) weather systems are frontal storms. They’re created when two different air masses rub up against each other and form a weather “front”. The more different the two air masses are, the more intense these systems can be.
Tropical storms don’t need a front to develop along.
When you hear about a hurricane taking on “extra-tropical” characteristics, that means the warm air it uses as fuel has mostly run out, and it’s crashed into a different air mass, creating a weather front and taking on a new life as a frontal system.
In short, the ways in which tropical and non-tropical storms form, are organized, and are fueled are fundamentally different from each other.
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