page_title: Cyclone Mora
section_title: Meteorological history
hierarchical_section_title: Cyclone Mora / Meteorological history
caption_attribution_description: English: Tropical Cyclone Mora (02B) over the Bay of Bengal
context_page_description: Cyclone Mora was a tropical cyclone that caused widespread devastation and severe flooding in Sri Lanka, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Bangladesh, Myanmar and Northeast India in May 2017. The second named storm of the 2017 annual cyclone season, Mora developed from an area of low pressure over the southeastern Bay of Bengal on May 28. Mora reached peak strength with maximum sustained winds of 110 km/h. The cyclone made landfall near Chittagong on the morning of May 30 and steadily weakened, dissipating early in the morning on May 31. Across its path, Mora dropped a large amount of rain, including 225mm of rainfall in Chittagong and northeast India. The storm is estimated to have caused damages nearing US$300 million.
  The name Mora, suggested by Thailand, means agate.
context_section_description: In late May 2017, an area of convection began to organize in the Bay of Bengal. Favorable conditions, characterized by low wind shear and warm sea surface temperatures, allowed for the development of rainbands and the beginnings of circulation on May 27. That same day, the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) noted that there was a high likelihood that the low pressure area would organize into a tropical depression. The Joint Typhoon Warning Center also issued a tropical cyclone formation alert on May 27, citing the persistent thunderstorm activity and the consolidating center of circulation. The Joint Typhoon Warning Center classified the disturbance as a tropical cyclone when the storm continued to intensify. The storm's motion was influenced primarily by a nearby subtropical ridge, forcing the system to take a north-northeasterly track.
  Cloud tops over southeastern Bangladesh exceeded 15.3 km (9.5 miles), and over the Bay of Bengal cloud tops reached almost 16 km (9.9 miles). Shortly before landfall, the storm reached its peak intensity as a severe cyclonic storm with winds of 70 mph (110 km/h) and a minimum central pressure of 978 hPa (mbar). The JTWC noted that the storm reached category 1 hurricane strength with winds of 75 mph (120 km/h). Animated enhanced infrared satellite imagery depicted improved consolidation with an eye feature on the morning of May 30.
caption: Cyclone Mora intensifying over the Bay of Bengal on May 29
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