Hurricane Rachel

Hurricane — Category 1 Rachel is packing 70-kt (80-mph) winds, moving WNW at 6 kt (7 mph). Moves inland over the coast Mon as a weakening depression.

At 800 AM PDT (1500 UTC), the center of Hurricane Rachel was located near latitude 20.9 North, longitude 121.8 West. Rachel is moving toward the west-northwest near 7 mph (11 km/h), and a generally west to west-northwestward motion is expected during the next couple of days. Rachel is then forecast to slow down before making a sharp turn to the northeast by the end of the week. Maximum sustained winds are near 80 mph (130 km/h) with higher gusts. Gradual to steady weakening is forecast over 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 42

This is the East Pacific · 19°N–42°N, 128°W–110°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.