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The Learning Kingdom's Cool Fact of the Day for February 19, 1999
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Why does a hurricane have a calm "eye" in the center?
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The eye of a hurricane is the inescapable result of the laws of
physics. No matter how strong the rotating winds are around the
center, there must always be a point where there is no wind at all.
That point, and a circular region around it, is the eye. Sometimes
the sky in the eye is clear and blue, or stars may be visible if it's
night.
A hurricane's eye is surrounded by a circular wall of boiling clouds.
The cloud wall marks the sudden transition between the raging winds and
relative calm. Air pressure in a hurricane's eye is very low, often
lower than any (sea-level) pressures outside of such storms.
Although we know there must be an eye, there are many unanswered
questions. Why is the eye so sharply defined? Why is there a
downdraft in most eyes? How can a storm's eye develop two concentric
cloud walls, and why does the storm often weaken immediately
afterwards?
Here's some great writing about hurricane Hugo (South Carolina, 1989):
http://www2.sptimes.com/weather/HG.6.html
Other Cool Facts about thunderstorms and hurricanes:
http://www.cool-fact.com/archive/1998/10/29.html
http://www.cool-fact.com/archive/1999/01/11.html
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Copyright (c) 1999, The Learning Kingdom, Inc.
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