Once in a while, something happens in the upper air that destroys this lid. Scientist don not know how this happens. But when it does, it's the first step in the birth of a hurricane. With the lid off, the warm, moist air rises higher and higher. Heat energy, released as the water vapor in the air condenses. As it condenses it drives the upper drafts to heights of 50,000 to 60,000 feet

This makes the updrafts rise faster, pulling in even larger amounts of air and water vapor from the storm's edges. And as the updrafts speed up, air swirls faster and faster around the storm center. The storm clouds, moving with the swirling air, form a coil. In a few days the hurricane will have grown greatly in size and power. The swirling shape of the winds of the hurricane is shaped like a dough-nut. At the center of this giant "dough-nut" is a cloudless, hole usually having a radius of 10 miles. Through it, the blue waters of the ocean can be seen. The hurricane's wind speed near the center of the hurricane ranges from 75 miles to 150 miles per hour. The winds of a forming hurricane tend to pull away from the center as the wind speed increases. When the winds move fast enough, the "hole" developes.

This hole is the mark of a full-fledge hurricane. The hole in the center of the hurricane is called the "eye" of the hurricane

Some topics in this essay:
Atlantic Ocean, Hurricanes Hurricanes, water vapor, hurricane winds, air swirls, storm center, eye hurricane, warm moist air, tornado winds, wind speed, warm moist, moist air, winds cover,