under the influence of an upper air cyclonic circulation, a low pressure area formed over the andaman sea on october 6. the system drifted westward and intensified into a depression and subsequently into a deep depression the next day, followed by the joint typhoon warning center (jtwc) issuing a tropical cyclone formation alert (tcfa). owing to favorable environmental conditions, the storm intensified into a cyclonic storm on october 8 and was named "hudhud". its convection consolidated in the following hours, and hudhud became a severe cyclonic storm on october 9. hudhud underwent rapid deepening in the following days, intensified into a very severe cyclonic storm and developed a well-defined eye feature. shortly before landfall near visakhapatnam, andhra pradesh on october 12, hudhud reached its peak strength with three-minute wind speeds of and a minimum central pressure of . the system drifted northwards over land and was last noted as a well-marked low pressure area over east uttar pradesh on october 14.