Jamaica in crisis mode as Category 5 ‘storm of the century’ set to make landfall bringing extreme weather, damaging winds, rain and flooding; track the path as storm moves towards Cuba and Bahamas

The eyewall is the most intense part of a hurricane; It is the ring of rising storms that surrounds the calm center or “eye” of the storm. Here winds reach maximum strength, precipitation is heaviest and waves are at their highest.

Inside the eyewall, conditions are extreme: Hurricane-force winds can destroy buildings, uproot trees, and cause massive storm surges along the coast. Conditions may appear calmer outside the eye, but it is the eyewall that directs the destructive power of the storm.

Think of the eye as literally the calm and eerily quiet “eye of the storm”; The eyewall is the engine of the storm that roars and revolves around it. The eyewall is the most dangerous area for anyone in its path; is the true heart of the hurricane.

So, when a hurricane makes landfall, it is not the eye that hits the shore, but the wall of the eye.