The wind speeds are the bright colors, regardless of wind direction. in this case, it is a slice from west to east across the hurricane, so west is to the left. The 64 knot winds (hurricane force) are purple and higher, and the 96 knot winds (category 3) are light pink and other pink colors. The isotherms (0 degree C, -12 degree C, -18 degree C) are the small dashed lines that bump up in the middle of the storm. Hurricanes concentrates the warmer air at the eye, due to the latent heat release at the eyewall. The solid black lines are a little confusing as it represents potential temperature. When they dip down, then it is warmer. The 96 knots to maybe 115 knots on the east side of the eye reach very high into the air, about 35000 feet. Winds weaken at 40000 feet. The west side of the storm has some slightly different qualities in terms of how the winds change with height. The gray bump is due to the fact that the sea level pressure is around 950 mb, which is much different than the typical 1000mb. The highest winds are above the surface, but certainly winds of up to 120 knots are not far from the surface.
This is a 12 hour forecast from the HWRF, for 06z