Hurricane Nolo

Hurricane — Category 2 Nolo is packing 90-kt (105-mph) winds, moving W at 10 kt (12 mph). Expected to stay over open water.

At 500 AM HST (1500 UTC), the eye of Hurricane Nolo was located by Air Force Reconnaissance aircraft near latitude 16.2 North, longitude 158.3 West. Nolo is moving toward the west near 12 mph (19 km/h). A turn toward the northwest is expected by tonight, with this general motion continuing through Tuesday. On the forecast track, the center of Nolo will remain well south and southwest of the main Hawaiian Islands but will approach the Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument early this week. Maximum sustained winds have increased to near 105 mph (165 km/h) with higher gusts. Nolo is predicted to strengthen into a major hurricane within the next day or so and reach its peak intensity by Monday. Weakening is expected in a couple of days. Hurricane-force winds extend outward up to 35 miles (55 km) from the center and tropical-storm-force winds extend outward up to 150 miles (240 km). The e— National Hurricane Center · public advisory 28

This is the East Pacific · 14°N–27°N, 172°W–156°W. Nolo’s forecast track is the dotted spine — the labelled dots mark its position each day. Every cell is shaded by how many hours it spends inside Nolo’s gale-force (≥34 kt · 39 mph) wind across the whole forecast, the damaging core counted double.

Read it two ways at once. Colour is the total — the hours of gale-force wind a place piles up. A slow storm writes its danger in duration, not in any single gust, so the longer the wind sits over a place, the deeper its colour. Opacity is confidence — solid where the official probability of that wind is high, faint where it is only a chance. So a deep, solid cell is a place the wind will work for a long time and likely will; a pale, faint one is a brief, uncertain brush at the edge of the cone.