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Abstract Convective cold pools (CPs) are inherent to mesoscale convective systems and have been identified in tropical cyclone (TC) eyewalls and rainbands. However, their distribution within TCs and their impacts on the TC enthalpy balance are not well understood. This gap is due to the scarcity of high-frequency observations over the ocean. By comparing 1-min data from Saildrone uncrewed surface vehicles to 10-min ocean moored buoy data, we demonstrate that the latter can detect CPs effectively. The analysis of the combined mooring-Saildrone dataset, associated with 241 TCs in the North Atlantic over the period 1998–2023, reveals that the frequencies of occurrence of CPs in the motion-right and shear-left quadrants are 50% and 30% higher than in the motion-left and shear-right quadrants, respectively. This indicates that there is enhanced convection in the motion-right and shear-left quadrants, and TC motion is more important than vertical wind shear in organizing CPs. Although, on average, CPs occur only about 6% of the time in TCs, their contribution to tropospheric latent heat release from their uplifting effect could be comparable to the total surface enthalpy flux in TCs under non-CP conditions. In addition, we found that CP gust fronts can boost surface sensible and latent heat fluxes by 65% and 11%, respectively, which can help low-enthalpy downdraft boundary air recover more quickly, increasing the readiness of the boundary layer for new convection under TC conditions. These findings suggest that properly resolving CP dynamics in TC models could improve the accuracy of TC intensity forecasts. Significance StatementConvective cold pools are bursts of cool, dry air near the surface, often originating from thunderstorms. As they travel, they uplift surface moist air to higher altitudes, which helps form new thunderstorms. As thunderstorms are an integral part of tropical cyclones, the purpose of this study is to investigate the distribution of cold pools inside tropical cyclones and how much they impact tropical cyclone energy. We found that cold pools are more common on the right side of tropical cyclone paths, suggesting stronger thunderstorms in that part of the storm. Despite a low frequency of occurrence of 6%, the amount of energy contributed by cold pools’ uplifting effect in a hurricane can match the total energy released by that hurricane.