Science · 6 pages · 12 min

How the eye of a hurricane can be calm

The eye is calm because air sinks there, inside a ring of the storm's worst weather.

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From the opening

The eye is a central region of sinking air surrounded by the eyewall, the ring of the storm's strongest thunderstorms. Inside it the sinking air warms and clouds break, and the winds drop, so the center can be calm while the ring around it is violent. The opening covers sinking air clears the center, the eyewall holds the worst wind, and why the calm is not the ending.

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Inside

Sinking air clears the center
The eyewall holds the worst wind
Why the calm is not the ending
Eyewall replacement can fill the eye
Where the idea stops applying
A distinction worth keeping

Sources

The warm subsiding eye of a tropical cyclone
The eyewall as the ring of peak wind

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How the eye of a hurricane can be calm

From the opening

Inside

Sources

Also on the desk