Global storm activity of 2008 from of snow during a two-day period. The poor conditions forced the closure of Interstate 90 in the Black Hills region of western South Dakota. On May 8, dust storms hit Astana in Kazakhstan. 21 people had died in a rural Mongolian blizzard. Parts of the Chinese province of Inner Mongolia were also affected. The Burmese government said that over 60,000 people are dead or missing and about 1,000,000 are homeless. The American embassy to Burma in the area has estimated that about 100,000 died when Cyclone Nargis hit coastal Myanmar on May 8 and 9, 2008. Fifty-four people, including
Cyclone Nargis of 160 km/h (100 mph), and at the same time, the IMD classified the system as a very severe cyclonic storm. Initially, the cyclone was forecast to strike Bangladesh or southeastern India. Subsequently, the cyclone became disorganised and weakened due to subsidence and drier air; as a result, deep convection near the center markedly decreased. At the same time, the storm began a motion to the northeast, around the periphery of a ridge to its southeast. The circulation remained strong despite the diminishing convection, though satellite intensity estimates using the Dvorak technique indicated the cyclone could have weakened to tropical