Tropical Storm Nida degrading; soon to dissipate

Nida has now degraded to a tropical storm and is expected to dissipate within the next 24 - 36 hours.

Nida's journey through the Pacific began as a tropical depression on November 22 with 30 MPH sustained winds. She slowly grew to a Tropical Storm and then a Category 1 typhoon over the next two days. Suddenly, Nida surged in strength to a Category 3 typhoon with an increase in sustained winds of 30 MPH. Within 6 hours Nida increased to a Category 4 typhoon and reached a Category 5 storm 6 hours after that.

A maximum sustained wind speed of 185 MPH was recorded on November 25 at 18:00 hours GMT (Zulu time). This windspeed made Nida the strongest storm of the 2009 season in the Pacific Ocean, just slightly stronger than Hurricane Rick. wave height near the eye of the typhoon was estimated (measured?) at 44 feet.

Nida remained a Super typhoon for a total of 5 days finally dropping below 140 MPH windspeed on Monday, November 30. Since then she has steadily declined in strength and will soon dissipate over water.

Nida did not make landfall although the effect of her wrath was felt on the shores of quite a few islands in the Northern Marianas and Yap. No deaths have been attributed to Nida.