Hurricane winds blow in a counterclockwise spiral around the calm, roughly circular center called the eye. In the eye, which is roughly 20 to 30 miles wide, it is relatively calm and there is little or no rain. The eye is the warmest part of the storm. Surrounding the eye is the eyewall, a wall of thunderclouds. The eyewall has the most rain and the strongest winds of the storm. In addition to rotating with wind speeds of at least 74 mph, a hurricane travels relatively slowly across the ocean or land, usually at about 20 to 25 mph. Long spiral rainbands (bands of rain clouds) appear to spiral inward to the eyewall. Hurricanes can be hundreds of miles across.

If this type of storm forms in the western Pacific Ocean, it is called a typhoon.

The exact location of a hurricane is easily tracked by scientists, using satellite photos and RADAR. Since the direction, speed, and intensity of a storm can change quickly, predicting exactly where a storm will travel in the future is not easy.

Hurricanes can travel from the ocean to the coast and on to land, where the wind, rain, and huge waves may cause extensive destruction. Generally, when a hurricane moves over land (or over cold ocean waters) the storm begins to weaken and quickly dies down because the storm is powered by warm water.