Poweful Hurricane Amanda Rallies Breifly, Only to Lose Steam [Video]

The most powerful May-season hurricane the world has seen since 1951, named Amanda, has finally died down to a tropical storm, but not before rallying on Tuesday to the surprise of experts. Images from NASA might help scientists better understand these powerful storms.

Hurricane Amanda, which peaked on Sunday with sustained wind speeds topping 150 miles per hour, has been raging off Mexico's west coast since last week. It is reportedly the most powerful May-June-July season hurricane the world has seen since 1951's Hurricane Able (strongest non-seasonal).

Experts from the US National Hurricane Center (NHC) had expected the hurricane to degrade into a tropical storm soon after hitting its peak, and on Monday it appeared to be doing just that. Then on Tuesday, as if in defiance of NHC predictions, the storm surged with renewed strength.

"Amanda apparently still has some gas in the tank," the center reported.

According to the National Weather Service and the NHC, Amanda had looked like it was succumbing to a "strong vertical shear" on Monday. However, by Tuesday morning, the storm has spun back up to a Category 3 hurricane with sustained maximum wind speeds of about 120 miles per hour.

Now NASA's TRMM and Aqua satellites have revealed that the impressive storm has finally weakened into a tropical storm as it continues to head northeast, thankfully away from land and residential islands. By Early Friday, May 30, the storm is expected to be little more than a tropical depression, according to a NASA press release.

However, before the storm was spotted on Wednesday, the TRIMM satellite- a joint mission between NASA and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency known as JAXA - was able to spot the hurricane just as it was peaking, and again when it was surging, providing significant insight on the storms formation.

Using that data, experts have crafted a 3-D flyby of the hurricane as of May 27.

[Credit: SSAI/NASA Goddard, Hal Pierce]