tropical storm pabuk, also referred to as cyclonic storm pabuk, was a weak storm that hit the malay peninsula in january 2019. it was also the earliest storm in both the western pacific and north indian ocean basins on record. forming on the last day of 2018, pabuk went into 2019 and crossed into the north indian ocean basin several days later. the first storm of the 2019 pacific typhoon and north indian ocean cyclone seasons, pabuk first appeared as a tropical disturbance in the south china sea on december 28, 2018, which organized into a tropical depression on december 31.