in late october, a low pressure area formed over the arabian sea. it slowly consolidated and a tropical cyclone formation alert (tcfa) was issued by the joint typhoon warning center (jtwc) on october 24. the following day, the india meteorological department (imd) classified the storm as a depression, designating it arb 02, and the jtwc estimated tropical storm winds at the storm's center, starting advisories for the system. on october 26, the system remained stationary and intensified into a deep depression. subsequently, the imd reported the storm had intensified into a cyclonic storm, and named it "nilofar". the following day, the imd upgraded the storm into a severe cyclonic storm and further to a very severe cyclonic storm, and the jtwc reported hurricane-strength winds at nilofar's center as it meanwhile developed an eye feature. on october 28, nilofar underwent rapid deepening throughout the day, reaching a peak strength of with wind speeds exceeding , tied with hudhud. over the following days, the storm recurved northeastwards and experienced high vertical wind shear, causing it to weaken rapidly into a minimal cyclonic storm on october 30. the low-level circulation center of the storm became exposed in the following hours and imd downgraded the storm into a well-marked low pressure area on october 31, issuing its final advisory for the system.