Bill Birk, age 12, of Bridgeport, Conn.

Why is the center of hurricane calm?

The eye of the hurricane is right in the middle. It may be a circle of calm, still air twelve miles wide. Around it the howling winds spiral at well over 75 miles an hour. Streaming clouds, flashing lightning and growling thunder, spiral in the sky. In the calm center of the roaring hurricane the sky may be cloudless, filled with sunshine or sparkling with stars. The hurricane storm is shaped like a doughnut ‑ with a hole in the middle,

The calm eye of the storm is really a column of warm air rising straight up. The rest of the doughnut is air rushing in to try and fill up this column of lighter air. Winds funnel into the central area from all sides. The spinning earth gives a twist to their inward direction and sends them spiraling.

Air pressure is always low in a hurricane area. That means that the troubled air is light, less dense than normal.. The pressure drops and drops as the center of the storm approaches. It is lowest in the calm eye of the storm where the column of light, warm air is rising aloft.