Photo Credit: Joint Typhoon Warning CenterImage taken Nov. 28, 2009Intense Super Typhoon Nida has had minimal impact to any land, yet this mightystorm has left its mark on world weather history for the year 2009.As of midday Saturday, EST, Super Typhoon Nida packed the Category 5 punch of165-mph top sustained winds as it churned over the open seas northwest of Guam.
Nida was tracking toward the north-northeast at a lazy 5-mph clip.
Strong as this was, Nida's intensity on Friday and Saturday was significantlybelow its peak intensity. On Wednesday, top winds about the eye of Nida rose toa phenomenal 185-mph clip, well into the rank of Category 5. 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.
Looking forward, the forecast is for Nida to accelerate northeastward andweaken during the next two days. In so doing, Nida may clip the remote VolcanoIslands, but it will keep far to the south and east of Japan.
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 Meteorologist Jim Andrews and MeteorologistEric Wanenchak.
