No Cyclonic Storm In April Over Bay Of Bengal- Fifth Consecutive Year
Apr 28, 2025, 5:28 PM | Skymet Weather Team
Image: AI-Skymet
The pre-monsoon season so far has gone without a storm in the Indian seas. Statistically, the Bay of Bengal hosts a greater number of storms than the Arabian Sea. In April, these storms form over the Andaman Sea, east of 85°E and around 15°N. Initially, the storms generally move northwest and then northward. Finally, they recurve to strike Myanmar and Bangladesh. Over the Arabian Sea also, a similar pattern is observed, and the storms occasionally strike Gujarat after recurving. Exceptions are always there, as these cyclones are known to be mysterious for defying the track, timelines and intensity, as well.
As compared to May, storm formation is less regular in April over the Bay of Bengal. In the last 30 years, between 1995 and 2025, only four cyclonic storms have formed over the Bay of Bengal. The last of these storms was in April 2019. An extremely severe cyclonic storm (ESCS), Fani, formed over the Bay of Bengal and lasted from 26th April till 04th May. It was a historic storm to strike Odisha, defying the climatology of tracks and intensity. The cyclone made landfall near Puri as an ESCS on 03rd May 2019 in the early hours.
No understandable pattern has emerged for the formation of cyclonic storms in April over Bay of Bengal. While there was no tropical storm between April 1995 and 2007, the cyclones formed in the subsequent years of 2008 and 2009. April 2008 witnessed storm ‘Nargis,’ and April 2009 observed storm ‘Bijli’. After a gap of seven years, the next storm, Maaruth’a, a weak and brief period system, formed between 15th and 17th April 2017. The cyclone made landfall at Sandoway, Myanmar. Over these thirty years, between 1995 and 2025, only one ESCS formed over BoB in April 2019.
La Niña, which otherwise favors more weather systems over Indian seas, has already faded. Sea surface temperatures are more or less normal or below normal over the Bay of Bengal. There is no support likely to come up, and the perturbations are least expected over the equatorial region and Andaman Sea. In the absence of any fresh trigger, no storm is likely over the Indian Seas till 10th May 2025.
