The Eye of the Hurricane is a fascinating area of calm weather amid wild weather. But it happens that some hurricanes have not one, but two eyes!
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One of the characteristics of hurricanes is that they have an eye at their center. The gigantic spiral of clouds, which can be several hundred kilometers long, forms a hole at the end: This hole is actually an area where the currents plummet towards the ground. This usually measures 30 to 60 kilometers, but the largest route extends over 100 to 200 kilometers. The formation of a very well-drawn eye always indicates a violent cyclone phenomenon.
But if just seeing one eye on satellite images is impressive, some hurricanes actually have two! The eye of the hurricane actually holds many surprises: not only does the eye move within the hurricane, but it can also be located side by side with another eye.
Two different processes to achieve the creation of two eyes
The phenomenon occurs in two different situations:
- When the eye renews itself, which can happen many times in a hurricane’s life cycle. Then it can temporarily have two eyes, a classic phenomenon in the Atlantic Ocean.
- When one hurricane “swallows” another along the way, the two phenomena end up forming a single system. This happens most often in the Pacific Ocean.
The merger of two hurricanes is explained in an animation, with the moment when the same system presents two eyes. © Insider Tech
The eyes can be positioned amazingly
Two-eyed hurricanes are not uncommon, but the phenomenon is often very fleeting and very often the two eyes are not the same size at all: the first is perfectly visible and the second barely. In 2016, Hurricane Matthew showed two eyes that were not aligned but surrounded each other. So there were two “eyewalls”, that is, twice in a row, the transition to calm weather, then to extremely violent weather:
It is rare for both eyes to be perfectly circular, but this has already happened with Hurricane Wilma in 2005, Hurricane Isaia in 2020, and Larry in 2021 (less visible).
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