How and where do hurricanes form?

Answer 1

Hurricanes start out as clusters of thunder storm,that move across the tropics in the central section of Africa from as far east as Ethiopia were they are push towards the west by easterly trade winds.
As the clusters or low pressure systems make there way off the continent the systems (sizable enough are some)encounter the warm Atlantic Ocean were there is more than enough moisture to exhilarate the formation of clouds (which have a dew point of about 2000 ft up in the atmosphere,were condensation takes place),which then takes on a spiral shape,by it doing so its strengthening from a low pressure to a 55 or 65 mile an hour, tropical storm,were if the wind speed makes it over the 75 mile and hour mark a Hurricane is born,officially.

All this though can't happen if conditions are not right such shearing in the upper atmosphere by westerly winds,or it encountering any form of land mass,that will disturb its development,or if it forms near to cooler water that are not able to support its hunger for thermal energy,but all this energy has to come from the sun heating the surface of the earth.

Note all systems or low pressure areas in the northern hemisphere spin in an anti clock wise direction due to Coriolis effect and a high pressure system is in a clock wise direction. all this occurs because the earth is rotating on its axis,and also these features will be in reverse in the southern hemisphere.

Answer 2

The answer is pretty involved, so I'll just give you this URL:

http://www.aoml.noaa.gov/hrd/tcfaq/A15.html

And, WHERE they form is generally anywhere the conditions are as described on the page that URL provides you.