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 – a ring of towering thunderstorms that surrounds the calm centre, or “eye,” of the storm. Here, winds reach their maximum strength, rainfall is heaviest, and waves are tallest.

Inside the eyewall, conditions are extreme: hurricane-force winds can destroy buildings, uproot trees, and cause massive storm surge along the coast. Outside the eye, conditions may seem calmer, but the eyewall is what drives the storm’s destructive power.

Think of the eye as the “eye of the storm” literally, calm and eerily quiet, while the eyewall is the storm’s roaring engine, spinning around it. For anyone in its path, the eyewall is the most dangerous zone – the real heart of the hurricane.

So when a hurricane makes landfall, it’s the eyewall that strikes the coast, not the eye itself.