What is the strongest part of a hurricane?
The strongest part of the hurricane is the eye wall. The eye wall is where the wind circulates around the closed eye. In the eye wall, sustained winds can reach 180 mph in the strongest Category 5 storms. The strongest winds inside the eyewall are found on the right side because of the forward speed of the storm. So if a hurricane has 80 mph winds and is moving at 10 mph, the winds on the right side will be 90 mph. 2. When does a tropical storm become a hurricane? When a storm reaches sustained winds of 74 mph it is classified as a Category 1 hurricane. The National Hurricane Center defines sustained wind as the average wind speed over a two-minute period. 3. What is the most devastating storm ever to hit North Carolina? While Hurricane Hazel claimed more lives – – 95 people died in North and South Carolina – – it was Hurricane Floyd in 1999 that caused the most damage, with close to $6 billion in losses. Floyd’s major damage came from the massive inland flooding along streams and rive
