Tropical Cyclone Amara ran into wind shear, and dropped from Category four hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson scale to a minimal tropical storm on December 23.
NASA's Aqua satellite passed over Tropical Cyclone Amara in the Southern Indian Ocean on Dec. 21 at 0940 UTC/4:50 a.m. EST when it was still at cyclone force and had an eye.
On December 23 at 1500 UTC, Amara's maximum sustained winds dropped to near 35 knots/40 mph/62 kph. It was located near 22.8 south latitude and 68.7 east longitude, about 657 nautical miles east-southeast of Port Louis, Mauritius. Amara was moving to the east at 5 knots/5.7 mph/9.2 kph.
Amara has ceased to qualify as a tropical cyclone and it is expected to become a remnant low pressure area in the next day or two.
Text credit: Rob Gutro
NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center