Tropical Cyclone Bongani dissipated today, November 26, in the Mozambique Channel as a result of wind shear.

Wind shear is a difference in wind speed and direction over a relatively short distance in the atmosphere. Wind shear can be both vertical and horizontal. Horizontal wind shear is seen across front, while vertical wind shear can be near the Earth’s surface or higher levels in the atmosphere near upper level jet streams. Wind shear can tear storms apart.

If you think of a tropical cyclone as a haystack, and you direct giant fans blowing at different heights of the stack, going different ways, that’s similar to how wind shear affects a tropical cyclone. It pushes into its circulation, weakening it.

Super Typhoon Nida’s rainfall on November 26 and captured moderate rainfall around the storm’s center between .78 to 1.57 inches per hour (yellow and green), with some heavy rainfall, as much as 2 inches of rain per hour (red), in a rain band southeast of the storm’s center.

Nida is still holding on to Super Typhoon status in the Western Pacific Ocean, and over the weekend, is forecast to pass east of both Iwo To and Chichi Jima islands. Although the center of Nida will remain at sea, both islands will face heavy surf, gusty winds and heavy rainfall.