However, the United States Joint Typhoon Warning Center unofficially monitored a tropical storm within the Arabian Sea, during January that posed a direct threat to Coalition forces in the buildup to the Gulf War.

[2][4] Over the next day the system moved westwards and developed into a Deep Depression, as it made landfall near Badudebpur in Odisha with estimated winds of 55 km/h (35 mph).

[4] The depression made landfall in the Indian state of Odisha later that day and maintained its identity until it weakened into a low-pressure area early on August 26.

[6] During January 14, the JTWC started to monitor an area of convection that had developed within the near equatorial trough of low pressure, about 900 km (560 mi) to the southeast of Colombo, Sri Lanka.

[3][7][8] Over the next couple of days the disturbance moved towards the northwest under the subtropical ridge of pressure, before early on January 17, the JTWC noticed a steady increase in deep convection and issued a Tropical Cyclone Formation Alert.

[3][7] As the Cyclone was suffering from being in an area of strong vertical wind shear it was not able to intensify past minimal tropical storm strength of 65 km/h, (40 mph).

[3][7] During the next couple of days, strong upper-level winds stripped deep convection away from the center with the JTWC downgrading the cyclone to a tropical depression early on January 19.

[3] The remaining low level circulation center slowly dissipated with the JTWC issuing their final advisory early the next day.

[3] However it was not a significant factor in the buildup to the Gulf war and due to it low latitude track and weak intensity it had little effect on ships steaming to the Middle East.