"Eyewall" may seem like just another term we throw around during hurricane season, but it's one of the most important parts of a storm's anatomy to understand.

It's where a hurricane keeps its strongest winds and heaviest rain — and it's the reason the calmest moment of a storm can quickly become the most dangerous. Here's what you need to know.

Q: What is the eyewall?

A: It's the ring of towering thunderstorms wrapped tightly around the calm eye at a storm's center. It is the most dangerous part of a hurricane because it's where the highest surface winds and most intense rainfall typically are found.

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Q: How tall can the eyewall get?

A: The towering cumulonimbus clouds that make up the eyewall can rise from near the ocean surface to roughly 70,000 feet. For perspective, commercial planes normally reach cruising altitude somewhere between 30,000 and 40,000 feet.

Q: Why are the strongest winds found there?

A: This is because the eyewall is where all the air being drawn into the storm is forced to go upward. Air spiraling in toward the center converges so forcefully that it has nowhere to go but up, and it rises faster and more violently there than anywhere else in the storm. 

These updrafts tilt outward as they climb, so the eyewall leans away from the center with height — giving it that stadium effect.

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Q: Why is the eye itself calm?

A: Air in the eye is slowly sinking rather than rising, which suppresses cloud formation and leaves a roughly circular pocket of fair weather at the center. 

Q: If the eye passes over me, is it safe to go outside?

A: No, this is a common misconception, and it kills people. The calm is temporary, lasting anywhere from a few minutes to a couple of hours for a slow-moving storm. When the far side of the eyewall arrives, winds return abruptly at full strength from the opposite direction. You should stay indoors and resist venturing out, even during a lull.

Caitlin Kaiser graduated from the Georgia Institute of Technology with both an undergraduate and graduate degree in Earth and Atmospheric Sciences before starting her career as a digital meteorologist with weather.com.