Extremely Severe Cyclonic Storm Phailin was the most intense tropical cyclone to make landfall in India since the 1999 Odisha cyclone until Cyclone Amphan hit West Bengal in May 2020. The system was first noted as a tropical depression on October 4, 2013, within the Gulf of Thailand, to the west of Phnom Penh in Cambodia. Over the next few days, it moved westwards within an area of low to moderate vertical wind shear, before as it passed over the Malay Peninsula, it moved out of the Western Pacific Basin on October 6. It emerged into the Andaman Sea during the next day and moved west-northwest into an improving environment for further development before the system was named Phailin on October 9, after it had developed into a cyclonic storm and passed over the Andaman and Nicobar Islands into the Bay of Bengal.