Hurricane Julio (2014) roamed through the Eastern Pacific Ocean without ever posing a threat to land. But before it reached hurricane status, Julio became the first tropical storm known to have produced a powerful burst of radiation called a terrestrial gamma-ray flash (TGF), the highest-energy naturally-occurring light on Earth. For this reason, Julio became the inspiration and prototype of an effort to develop simple 3D-printable storm models from satellite imagery.

The model represents Julio as it appeared on Aug 7 at 2p.m. PDT (2100 UTC), when maximum sustained winds of 105 mph(165 km/h) placed it firmly in Category 2 on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale.