Hurricane Rachel

Hurricane — Category 1 Rachel is packing 70-kt (80-mph) winds, moving W at 6 kt (7 mph). Expected to stay over open water.

At 200 PM PDT (2100 UTC), the center of Hurricane Rachel was located near latitude 20.5 North, longitude 120.1 West. Rachel is moving toward the west near 7 mph (11 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 80 mph (130 km/h) with higher gusts. Gradual to steady weakening is forecast the next few days. 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 979 mb (28.91 inches).— National Hurricane Center · public advisory 39

This is the East Pacific · 19°N–32°N, 128°W–113°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.