image: The Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) satellite captured Nisha's rainfall on Jan. 28 at 1947 UTC (2:47 p.m. ET). The rainfall is occurring from the south to northeast of the storm's center. The yellow and green areas indicate moderate rainfall between .78 to 1.57 inches per hour. Red areas are heavy rainfall at almost 2 inches per hour. view more
Credit: NASA/SSAI, Hal Pierce
Nisha is not expected to maintain its tropical storm status this weekend, because it is being battered by wind shear.
At 10 a.m. ET, January 29, Tropical Storm Nisha was barely hanging onto its status as a tropical storm, with maximum sustained winds near 39 mph (35 knots). It was located 150 nautical miles west-northwest of Rarotonga, near 19.8 South and 161.9 West. It was moving east-northeast near 11 mph.
The Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) satellite, managed by NASA and the Japanese Space Agency flew over Nisha on January 28 and noticed that most of its rainfall is light to moderate, and spans from the south to the northeastern side of the storm. There were some isolated areas of heavy rainfall where rain was falling at about 2 inches per hour. However, most of the rain was moderate, falling at rates between 20 and 40 millimeters (.78 to 1.57 inches) per hour.
Nisha is in an area of moderate to high vertical wind shear which is battering and weakening the storm. Nisha is forecast to move slowly to the east and dissipate over the latter half of the weekend.