The Northern Indian Ocean now has its first cyclone of their season. Cyclone 1B formed late on Tuesday, Apr. 14, Eastern Time. It has now strengthened from a low pressure area into a tropical depression and is expected to bring rains and gusty winds to the northeast coastal areas of India before moving away.

Before Cyclone 1B strengthened into a tropical depression, the Joint Typhoon Warning Center (JTWC) labeled it System 94B. That was so the forecasters at JTWC could keep track of the storm. It just means that it’s the 94th low pressure area they’ve watched this season.

On Apr. 15 at 09:00 UTC (5 a.m. EDT), Cyclone 1B had maximum sustained winds near 35 knots (40 mph) as confirmed by NASA’s QuikSCAT satellite. Any strengthening will be slow to occur, because of adverse atmospheric conditions (i.e. wind shear – winds blowing in different directions at different heights in the atmosphere). It was moving northwest near 9 knots (10mph) towards the Indian coast. It is expected to brush the coast and then be pushed further east into the Bay of Bengal because of a developing high pressure system over India.

Cyclone 1B was about 380 miles east-northeast of Chennai, India near 14.7 degrees north latitude and 86.6 degrees east longitude. That puts the center of the storm about west of center between India and Burma (or Myanmar) in the Bay of Bengal.

According to the JTWC, the threatened landmasses include the Andaman Islands, India, Bangladesh, and Burma (Myanmar). There are already warnings posted for the Indian coast, and the Andaman Islands can expect gale force winds before 09:00 UTC on Apr. 16. The coasts of Orissa and Andra Pradesh may experience gales within the next day after.