2008 North Indian Ocean cyclone season severe cyclonic storm. The JTWC unofficially tracked seven systems, with six having one-minute sustained winds greater than 65 km/h (40 mph), slightly above their 32-year average of five. Activity was mostly limited to the Bay of Bengal, with only two depressions developing in the Arabian Sea. Somewhat unusually, no depression developed during the month of July due to the lack of a prominent monsoon. Collectively, there were a total of 30 days of activity in the basin, with no storms existing simultaneously. The first and most destructive storm of the season, Cyclone Nargis struck the Irrawaddy Delta in southern Myanmar,
Cyclone Nargis and there have been allegations that government officials stopped updating the death toll after 138,000 to minimize political fallout. The feared 'second wave' of fatalities from disease and lack of relief efforts never materialized. Damage was estimated at over K62,988,000,000 (US$10 billion), which made it the most damaging cyclone ever recorded in this basin. The first named storm of the 2008 North Indian Ocean cyclone season, Nargis developed on 27 April in the central area of Bay of Bengal. Initially, the storm tracked slowly northwestward, and encountering favourable conditions, it quickly strengthened. Dry air weakened the cyclone on 29 April,