Why is landfall marked and counted down to when the eye of the hurricane hits, when it seems all the damaging parts are not the eye at all?

Question

Why is landfall marked and counted down to when the eye of the hurricane hits, when it seems all the damaging parts are not the eye at all?

In: Other

Answer 1

The strongest winds don’t generally stretch that far from the eye (20-50 miles generally, depending on lots of factors), so “landfall” is usually referred to when the outer edge of the strongest bands of wind reach shore.