NASA sees a somewhat shapeless Tropical Storm Ida

Tropical Storm Ida has been dealing with wind shear and appeared somewhat shapeless on imagery from NASA's Aqua satellite on September 23.

The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer or MODIS instrument aboard Aqua captured a visible image of a somewhat shapeless Tropical Storm Ida at 16:25 UTC (4:45 p.m. EDT) on Sept 23. National Hurricane Center forecaster Berg noted on September 24 that Ida's low-level center is exposed to the west of a relatively small cluster of deep convection (clouds and thunderstorms) due to 25 knots of west-northwesterly shear.

On September 24 at 5 a.m. EDT (0900 UTC), the center of Tropical Storm Ida was located near latitude 19.6 North, longitude 45.5 West. That's about 1,155 miles (1,855 km) east of the Northern Leeward Islands.

Ida was moving toward the east near 6 mph (9 kph). A turn toward the north is expected by tonight, followed by a northwestward motion by Friday night, September 25. The estimated minimum central pressure is 1005 millibars. Maximum sustained winds were near 40 mph (65 kph) and the National Hurricane Center expects little change in strength in the next two days.

Ida is still in the Central Atlantic Ocean and is no threat to land. The NHC expects Ida to move to the north-northwest over the next couple of days. Updated forecasts can be found at: http://www.nhc.noaa.gov.