Severe Cyclonic Storm Phethai was a tropical cyclone which affected some portions of Sri Lanka and India during December 2018. The fourteenth depression, ninth deep depression, seventh cyclonic storm, and fifth severe cyclonic storm of the 2018 North Indian Ocean cyclone season, Phethai developed from an area of low pressure that formed over the Bay of Bengal on December 13. Having forecasted not to develop significantly, the depression then strengthened to a deep depression later that day before becoming a cyclonic storm on December 15. Phethai further intensified and peaked to a severe cyclonic storm, the following day. The system then steadily weakened due to land interaction and increasing wind shear, before making landfall as a disorganized system over Andhra Pradesh on December 17. I