Dear Tom,
Please tell me a few things about the “eye” of a hurricane.
-Leecie Pearce, Delavan, Wis.
Dear Leecie,
The “eye” is a roughly circular area of rather quiet weather found at the center of a
hurricane. Eyes generally are 20 to 40 miles across, but they range in size from about 5
miles to (rarely) more than 120 miles. Winds are light or calm at the very center of an
eye, but strong winds can sometimes extend into its periphery. There is little or no rain,
and sometimes the sky is partially clear, but the eye is surrounded by a circular ring of
towering cumulonimbus clouds— the “eyewall”—that often extends upward more than
30,000 feet. A hurricane’s lowest air pressure is found in its eye, and its highest winds
occur in the eyewall. Temperatures in the eye are only slightly warmer than in the
surrounding storm.
