Tropical Storm Rachel

Tropical Storm Rachel is packing 60-kt (70-mph) winds, moving WNW at 7 kt (8 mph). Moves inland over the coast Mon as a weakening depression.

At 200 AM PDT (0900 UTC), the center of Tropical Storm Rachel was located near latitude 21.8 North, longitude 123.9 West. Rachel is moving toward the west-northwest near 8 mph (13 km/h). This general motion is expected to continue over the next 24 hours, before a sharp turn to the northeast, along with an increase in forward speed, is forecast to occur. Maximum sustained winds have decreased to near 70 mph (110 km/h) with higher gusts. Continued gradual weakening is expected over the next few days. Tropical-storm-force winds extend outward up to 115 miles (185 km) from the center. The estimated minimum central pressure is 985 mb (29.09 inches).— National Hurricane Center · public advisory 45

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

This is the East Pacific · 20°N–43°N, 127°W–108°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.