due to the presence of an weak el niño to continue through the season, the season's first named storm, pabuk, entered the basin on january 4, becoming the earliest-forming cyclonic storm of the north indian ocean on record, tying with 2014 season. the second cyclonic storm of the season was formed, fani on april 26. fani became an extremely severe cyclonic storm on april 30, reaching an category 4-equivalent tropical cyclone on the saffir-simpson scale, then made landfall in india killing 89 people between odisha and bangladesh; fani caused $1.812 billion in damages. in early june, a strong pulse of the madden-julian oscillation (mjo), led to the development of the third cyclonic storm, vayu, which formed june 10 in the arabian sea, near the maldives. the storm subsequently intensified into a very severe cyclonic storm on june 12, after moving northwestward towards northwestern india and pakistan.