Carole Pease, age 14, of Williamsport, Pennsylvania, for her question:

Why is the eve of a hurricane calm?

The calm central eye is actually the engine that powers the monstrous howling hurricane. It was created when the tropical sun heated the ocean, which warmed a pocket of air. This cell of light, warm air expanded and zoomed aloft, drawing in surrounding air to fill its emptying pocket. As the winds blew inward, the current of rising air whisked them aloft    and pulled harder. The central weather engine intensified, the inf lowing winds grew wilder and stormier. The spinning earth twisted the outer winds to spiral inward, where the core of rising air abruptly twisted them upward.

The weathery engine at the heart of the storm is the eye of the hurricane. There the wild winds suddenly cease. The sun shines down from a blue sky, perhaps dotted with a few innocent white clouds. In this circle of ten miles or so, the raging storm becomes mysteriously calm. Actually, the weathery air is still in motion. Winds are air currents moving horizontally over the earth. Rising and descending currents create calms. In the eye of a hurricane, the horizontal winds abruptly enter an updraft.