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| Hurricane Structure |
Hurricane winds blow in a counterclockwise spiral around the calm, roughly circular center called the eye. In the eye, which is roughly 20 to 30 miles wide, it is relatively calm and there is little or no rain. The eye is the warmest part of the storm.
Surrounding the eye is the eyewall, a wall of thunderclouds. The eyewall has the most rain and the strongest winds of the storm. The smaller the eye, the stronger the winds. The winds spiral in a counterclockwise direction into the storm's low-pressure center.
Long bands of rain clouds appear to spiral inward to the eyewall, these are called spiral rainbands. Hurricanes can be hundreds of miles across.
(TOP) The eye, eye wall and rain bands of hurricane
(MIDDLE) Mixture of cool (falling) and warm (rising) air (Graphics Copyright © National Center for Atmospheric Research/The COMET Program.)
The stronger the convection in the thunderstorms becomes, the more rain they produce. The more rain they produce, the more heat they release into the surrounding atmosphere, further fueling the storm.
For more specific explanation regarding the structure of Sandy, please visit:
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