I know the eye of a hurricane is relatively calm but how calm is it? Is the sun shining? Are birds singing?
Also, are there large waves? If not, why don’t the large waves at the extreme of the hurricane make it to the eye?
I’ve been in the eye of two hurricanes (passed directly over the island). The first one was a cat 3 storm and the eye was very calm compared to the hurricane. It was the middle of the night and so there was no sunshine and I wasn’t venturing outside to check if there were stars, but the wind died right down (still some gusty wind, but nothing at all like the real thing). The weirdest part was hearing the eyewall rushing towards you…sounded like a freight train.
The second one was only a category one hurricane, so the eye was not as well defined. It was overcast and again gusty winds during the eye but much calmer than the storm. We ventured outside to check damage during that one, but it’s very dangerous to do that because you cannot tell when the eyewall will hit again. The eyewall came on a lot more gradually in the Cat 1 than the Cat 3.
As for the waves, I was nowhere near the sea, so can’t tell you how big they were…it’s not a good idea to be anywhere near the sea during a hurricane.
From my one experience having a Force 2 hurricane come over my home near Lafayette, LA:
It is strange. As the eye approaches, the rain slows to a drizzle, then stops. The sun comes out, and there are only a few small random gusts of a breeze. Then you start hearing the birds chatter and sing, and you realize how deafening the rain and wind had been. The storm’s over, except you see a huge wall of clouds in the distance. Also, the air doesn’t seem quite right for some reason, at least to me. I’m guessing it’s the low barometric pressure.
Then as the eye starts to move past your location, it’s like someone starts playing the movie in reverse. The wind starts picking up again, but in the opposite direction. The sun is again covered in dark clouds, the rain starts again in earnest, and you know you have another 4 - 6 hours or so to go.
I’ve been in the eye of several hurricanes, including a cat 4 (Hugo). IME, the more well-developed the storm, the calmer the weather inside the eye. During Hugo, things went from abject chaos to calm in under five minutes. Venturing outside, I remember I’d never seen that many stars. There was a light breeze. Other than the pervasive smell of freshly-cut lumber from all the downed trees, you wouldn’t know anything was wrong. After about 10 mins, you could hear a dull roar over the ocean. Gradually, it got louder and louder. Before I went inside, the storm surge hit. I remember watching water go from my ankle to just below my knee in literally three minutes (we lived on a tidal creek). Back inside, the house shook when the eastern side of the eyewall hit. From 5 mph winds to 135 mph winds, again, literally in the space of minutes. It’s quite an awesome experience, not that I’d recommend it.
Great info.
Anyone got any info on the size of waves in the eye?
I don’t have any personal experience of the matter (for which I’m exceedingly thankful), but William Hope Hodgson (WW1-era horror author; spent years at sea; made a hobby of photographing unusual weather at sea) writes of the “vertical ocean” in the eye of storms. The term “rogue wave” hadn’t been coined yet, but that’s essentially what he’s talking about–huge waves that appear to rise straight up out of nothing. He said that these waves were much more feared than the waves in the windy portion of the storm, because they were so unpredictable.
Not big in the eye. I would think in smaller storms where the eye isn’t as well defined, you would see larger waves. But when it’s calm, the waves die down. During the storm, we had waves breaking on the back porch. :eek: The eye is usually when the surge comes ashore. There’s not really a “wall of water” like you hear about; it’s just water that’s rising very quickly. When the storm starts back up again, the waves start, too, except they’re a lot higher because the water level is higher. On the barrier islands (where the beaches are usually found), my friend reported that during Hugo, the surge completely submerged the entire island. All accounts from surfers are that the best waves for that are found 1-2 days before the storm hits, when it’s still far offshore.