Hurricane Rachel

Hurricane — Category 1 Rachel is packing 75-kt (85-mph) winds, moving W at 7 kt (8 mph). Expected to stay over open water.

At 800 AM PDT (1500 UTC), the center of Hurricane Rachel was located near latitude 20.5 North, longitude 119.5 West. Rachel is moving toward the west near 8 mph (13 km/h). A westward to west-northwestward motion is expected during the next few days, with a sharp northeastward turn late this week. Maximum sustained winds are near 85 mph (140 km/h) with higher gusts. Some fluctuations in intensity are possible the next day or so, with gradual weakening is forecast the rest of the week. Hurricane-force winds extend outward up to 35 miles (55 km) from the center and tropical-storm-force winds extend outward up to 140 miles (220 km). The estimated minimum central pressure is 977 mb (28.85 inches).— National Hurricane Center · public advisory 38

This is the East Pacific · 19°N–32°N, 129°W–115°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.