The eye is the center of rotation in a hurricane. It is usually a roughly circular region of relatively light winds and calmer weather at the geometric center of the tropical cyclone.
The eye is surrounded by the eyewall, a ring of towering thunderstorms that contains the storm’s strongest winds and heaviest rain. This contrast explains why people sometimes experience a sudden calm during the passage of a powerful hurricane, only to face extreme conditions again when the opposite side of the eyewall arrives.
A hurricane’s lowest atmospheric pressure is found near the eye. In strong storms, sinking air can clear the eye of clouds, creating the familiar satellite-image appearance. Weaker or changing storms may have an irregular, cloud-filled, or partially open eye.
The terms “vortex” and “core” describe broader physical ideas about a rotating storm, but they are not the standard name for its calm central region. The eyewall is also not the eye itself; it is the dangerous ring around it.