On September 23, a fairly late season tropical wave entered the Atlantic. It moved westward at a low latitude, passing well south of Cabo Verde and crossing the tropical Atlantic at a steady pace. By the 26th, an area of low pressure had developed along the wave, but the last push to tropical storm status was slow-going due to the size of the disturbance and the fact that Tropical Storm Philippe was close by to the northwest. Around the same time, the system turned rather sharply toward the north-northwest as it began a binary interaction with Philippe. A closed circulation became evident on September 28 and the disturbance was named Tropical Storm Rina.
The storm was over warm water but faced strong westerly wind shear and some disruption from the interaction with Philippe, which was only a little over 500 miles away to the west. Therefore, convection was confined primarily to the south and east of Rina's center. Due to the Fujiwhara effect, Philippe and Rina began to orbit each other cyclonically, which meant that Rina picked up speed and turned toward the west-northwest over the next couple of days. On September 30, the storm turned poleward and separated from the binary interaction, weakening as it did so. The strong shear over Rina did not lessen, and the center lost definition on October 1. By late that evening, it had degenerated into a remnant low. What was left of Rina dissipated soon after.
The image above shows Tropical Storm Rina early on September 29. The eastern part of Tropical Storm Philippe is visible at left.
Rina was a short-lived tropical storm that did not affect land.
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