2021 North Indian Ocean cyclone season
The 2021 North Indian Ocean cyclone season was an average season, the North Indian Ocean cyclone season has no official bounds, but cyclones tend to form between April and December, peaking between May and November. These dates conventionally delimit the period of each year when most tropical cyclones form in the northern Indian Ocean. The season began on April 2, when a depression designated as BOB 01 was formed in the north Andaman Sea and quickly made landfall in Myanmar. The basin remained quiet for over a month before Cyclone Tauktae formed. It rapidly intensified into an extremely severe cyclonic storm before making landfall in Gujarat, become the strongest storm ever to strike that state since the 1998 Gujarat cyclone. Later that month, BOB 02 formed and later strengthened into Cyclone Yaas. Yaas rapidly intensified into a very severe cyclonic storm before making landfall in northwestern Odisha. The season's strongest tropical cyclone was Cyclone Tauktae, with maximum wind speeds of 185 km/h (115 mph) and a minimum barometric pressure of 950 hPa (28.05 inHg).
2021 North Indian Ocean cyclone season
2021 North Indian Ocean cyclone season
2021 North Indian Ocean cyclone season
2021 North Indian Ocean cyclone season
Extremely Severe Cyclonic Storm Tauktae was a powerful, deadly and damaging tropical cyclone in the Arabian Sea that became the strongest tropical cyclone to make landfall in the Indian state of Gujarat since the 1998 Gujarat cyclone and one of the strongest tropical cyclones to ever affect the west coast of India and above all It was the strongest storm of 2021 North Indian Ocean cyclone season. The second depression, first cyclonic storm, first severe cyclonic storm, first very severe cyclonic storm, and first extremely severe cyclonic storm of the 2021 North Indian Ocean cyclone season, Tauktae originated from an area of low pressure in the Arabian Sea, which was first monitored by the India Meteorological Department on May 13. The low drifted eastward and organized into a deep depression by May 14. The storm soon took a northward turn, continuing to gradually intensify because of warm waters near the coast, and the system strengthened into a cyclonic storm and was named Tauktae later that same day. Tauktae continued intensifying into May 15, reaching severe cyclonic storm status later that day. Tauktae began to parallel the coast of the Indian states of Kerala, Karnataka, Goa and Maharashtra, before rapidly intensifying into a very severe cyclonic storm, early on May 16. Early on May 17, Tauktae intensified into an extremely severe cyclonic storm, reaching its peak intensity soon afterward. Later that same day, Tauktae underwent an eyewall replacement cycle and weakened, before restrengthening as it neared the coast of Gujarat, making landfall soon afterward.
Cyclone Tauktae near peak intensity approaching Gujarat in India on May 17
Cyclonic Storm Tauktae seen off the west coast of India on May 15
Very Severe Cyclonic Storm Tauktae on May 16 paralleling the west coast of India