Tropical Storm Rachel

Tropical Storm Rachel is packing 60-kt (70-mph) winds, moving WNW at 6 kt (7 mph). Moves inland over the coast Sun as a weakening tropical storm.

At 800 AM PDT (1500 UTC), the center of Tropical Storm Rachel was located near latitude 22.1 North, longitude 124.2 West. Rachel is moving toward the west-northwest near 7 mph (11 km/h). This general motion is expected to continue over the next day, before a sharp turn to the northeast, along with an increase in forward speed, occurs on Saturday. On the forecast track the center of Rachel is expected to approach the northern portion of Baja California on late Saturday. Maximum sustained winds are near 70 mph (110 km/h) with higher gusts. Gradual weakening is expected over the next few days, but Rachel is still expected to be at tropical storm strength when it approaches northern Baja California. 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 46

This is the East Pacific · 20°N–46°N, 127°W–106°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.