2008 North Indian Ocean cyclone season Intertropical Convergence Zone became very active over the Bay of Bengal and later spawned a low-pressure area on April 26. Accompanied by low wind shear, favorable outflow, and over an area of high sea surface temperatures, the system consolidated into a depression the following day. Tracking slowly westward, the depression intensified, becoming Cyclonic Storm Nargis on April 28. That day, steering currents weakened, causing the system to become nearly stationary before a trough influenced more northeasterly, and later easterly, movement. On April 29, the system attained hurricane-force winds. Hours before striking southern Myanmar on May 2, Nargis attained its peak
Cyclone Nargis initial uncertainty about the scale of the disaster. The final death toll from Nargis was at least 146,000, because there were 90,000 people confirmed dead at one point and 56,000 were missing. They were never found, so it was assumed that these 56,000 people were killed. Thus, its death toll would exceed that of the 1991 storm and make it the deadliest since the 1970 storm. It is now thought that hundreds of thousands of people will never be found after Nargis because their bodies have decayed, been buried, or were washed out to sea. Andrew Kirkwood, country director of