Photo Credit: Naval Research Lab MontereyImage taken Nov. 29, 2009Nida remains a powerful typhoon over the open waters of the eastern PhilippineSea.As of midday Sunday, EST, Typhoon Nida wielded maximum sustained winds of 140mph and gusts above 165 mph around an eye that was 385 miles to thesouth-southwest of Iwo Jima, one of Japan's Volcano Islands, and about 570miles to the northwest of Agana, Guam; it was nearly stationary.
Strong as this was, Nida's intensity on Sunday was significantly below its peakintensity. On Wednesday, top winds about the eye of Nida rose to a phenomenal185-mph clip, well into the rank of a Category 5 hurricane. Sea-level pressuredropped all the way to 905 millibars, or 26.72 inches of mercury. These vitalstatistics were high enough to lift Nida to the top of the list of Earth's mostintense tropical cyclones of 2009. In addition, Nida now ranks among thestrongest storms ever to develop in the month of November.
Nida is forecast to drift lazily to the northwest and west over open seasthrough midweek. During this time, the storm is likely to weaken steadily,perhaps losing typhoon status by Wednesday.
Before Nida, the world's strongest tropical cyclone of 2009 had to be thepowerful Hurricane Rick, which threatened western Mexico back in the middle ofOctober. Only narrowly did Nida eclipse Rick's Category 5 intensity.
Story by AccuWeather.com Senior Meteorologists Jim Andrews and DonnWashburn
