A low-pressure area associated with the monsoon trough was first detected by the Naval Research Laboratory in the Bay of Bengal on June 17. Over the next few days, it developed deep flaring convection near an exposed low-level circulation centre (LLCC) as it drifted in the open sea. Despite moderate to high vertical wind shear, the disturbance produced surface pressure falls of up to 2.7 mbar (hPa) in Port Blair, in the Andaman Islands, on June 19. Convection persisted around the increasingly well-defined LLCC, and the disturbance continued to consolidate under favourable diffluence.