Welcome to You Ask Andy

Steve Schaefle, age 16, of Atlanta, Ga.,

Why is the eye of  a hurricane calm

A hurricane is a vast and violent storm shaped like a doughnut. The hole in the center is a region of calm with blue skies and, perhaps, light breezes. The central eye of the hurricane is usually about 20 miles wide. A spiral of winds swirls around it at speeds up to 200 miles an hour. The winds bear black spiraling clouds, torn by lightning and pealing with thunder.

Yet, in the center of this howling storm is a small quiet region of calm ‑ the eye of the hurricane. This eye of the storm is a tunnel of vertical winds blowing at right angles to the ground. These vertical currents may be both ascending and descending. And this column of vertical winds holds the spiraling horizontal winds at bay.

The entire storm is from 300 to 600 miles in diameter. All this spiraling energy generates immense centrifugal force. We cannot yet explain fully what causes a hurricane to act as it does. But the centrifugal force of the rotating winds may be a factor in forming the calm eye of the storm. Centrifugal force doubles when the radius of a spiraling object is halved. This means that the centrifugal force in the winds near the cantor increases.

Centrifugal force pushes the rotating winds out from the center. The core of a hurricane is a low pressure region, pulling air in towards it. At ono point these warring forces, one pulling in, the other pulling out, must balance ouch other. This point well might be at the rim of the calm eye.

The hurricanes that strike our eastern states hatch over the warm Atlantic, just north of the equator. They are born during the summer and fall months when trade winds from the southern hemisphere blow up and tangle with the trade winds north of the equator. The northern trades blow from the northeast, the southern trades from the southeast.

Pockets of low pressure, of warm, light ascending air, tend to generate over, the tropical ocean. Such a column of rising air may get trapped in a tangle of trade winds from the north and from the south.

Though we are not  certain of this it may explain how the spiraling winds and central eye of a hurricane get started.

Each howling hurricane is carefully watched., charted and studied for two very good masons. By checking its path it is possible to predict whore and when it will strike. Its winds and the power of its destruction can be estimated. So, by watching ouch hurricane warnings may be issued. over land and sea.

The second reason for study is that we do not yet fully understand the causes and. dynamics of a hurricane. Perhaps, when we have studied enough of them and learned all about them we may be able to control them, who knows?

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