High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! The 2001 India cyclone was the second strongest tropical cyclone, in terms of barometric pressure, to form in the Arabian Sea on record, only Cyclone Gonu in 2007 was stronger. The storm originated from a tropical disturbance that formed east of Somalia on May 18. Over the following few days, the system gradually organized into a tropical depression. Tracking eastward, towards the coastline of southwestern India, the storm slowly intensified. Shortly before reaching shore, the system turned north and later west, away from land. After taking this turn, the storm intensified into a very severe cyclonic storm, attaining its peak intensity on May 24 with winds of 215 km/h (135 mph 3-minute winds) and a barometric pressure of 932 mbar (hPa). At the time, this ranked the cyclone as the strongest known storm in the Arabian Sea.