Hurricane Rachel

Hurricane — Category 1 Rachel is packing 75-kt (85-mph) winds, moving NW at 9 kt (10 mph). Expected to stay over open water.

At 500 AM MST (1200 UTC), the center of Hurricane Rachel was located near latitude 17.8 North, longitude 107.6 West. Rachel is moving toward the northwest near 10 mph (17 km/h). A northwestward motion at a slower forward speed is expected during the next day or two, followed by a turn toward the west-northwest and west later this week. On the forecast track, the center of Rachel is expected to move away from mainland Mexico and south of the Baja California Peninsula through Thursday. Maximum sustained winds are near 85 mph (140 km/h) with higher gusts. Rapid strengthening is expected today, and Rachel could become a major hurricane within the next day or so. Hurricane-force winds extend outward up to 25 miles (35 km) from the center and tropical-storm-force winds extend outward up to 160 miles (260 km). The estimated minimum central pressure is 979 mb (28.91 inches).— National Hurricane Center · public advisory 13

Rachel tracks over open water — no coast is in the outlook. Along its path, our forecast reads:

This is the East Pacific · 16°N–25°N, 120°W–105°W. Rachel’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 Rachel’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.

searched 34 vetted voices and the open field — nothing said about this system cleared the screen.