Stupid question, but I am in earthquake and volcano country. What does this mean?
Not stupid at all! This is my understanding, and I’ll let more knowledgeable folks step in to correct me if I misstate anything (I’m on the west coast myself, and don’t claim to be an expert ;-))
When the eyewall opens up, it could mean that the hurricane is becoming more disorganized due to periodic “eyewall replacement cycles” (you can read about those here: http://www.theweatherprediction.com/habyhints2/412/) or due to other reasons.
When the eye closes up again, it’s a sign that the storm is becoming more organized (not a good thing).
The previous few cycles of data that I posted showed the eyewall being open, but the last two indicated it had closed again. Hopefully the storm won’t have enough time left to ramp up before it moves completely over land and begins to weaken.
The eye of the storm is a quiet area in the centre of the low pressure area. Surrounding this quiet area is the eye wall which has the strongest winds in the storm.
When an eye passes directly over, the winds increase dramatically as the storm passes over until they reach maximum as the lead wall passes. Then the winds die completely. The sea in the eye is very disturbed but no wind, When the trailing wall passes, the winds suddenly resume at full force in the opposite direction. (no build-up like the lead wall passage, just sudden resumption of the full wind force). This is a good time for anything loosened by the lead wall's passage to come unstuck.