(NORTH CAROLINA NEWS NETWORK) — With Cristobal the third named tropical system of the year, it is expected to be an active season in the tropics and experts are talking about what that means for us here in the east.

One of the impacts, according to Dr. Rick Luettich from the UNC Institute of Marine Sciences, is increased strength in the storms themselves.

Dr. Luettich tells WITN News the energy for systems and hurricanes comes from heat content in the water.

With warmer surface sea level temperatures, there’s evidence of not just earlier storms, but strong ones.