At a Glance

Tropical Cyclone Yaas came ashore in eastern India on May 26.It made landfall as the equivalent of a category 1 hurricane.Flooding rain, high winds and storm surge were expected in northeast India.

Tropical Cyclone Yaas struck eastern India with storm surge and high winds, and spread flooding rainfall well inland.

Yaas gradually gained strength over the warm water of the northern Bay of Bengal. Its intensification was held back a bit by some modest easterly wind shear.

Given the somewhat supportive environment and the lack of time Yaas spent over the Bay of Bengal, it made landfall as equivalent in strength to a Category 1 hurricane at landfall on May 26 in northern Odisha state.

This was well southwest of West Bengal state's capital city, Kolkata, home to about 14 million people.

Satellite image around the time of landfall of Tropical Cyclone Yaas in eastern India on May 26, 2021.

ahead of the storm during a devastating COVID-19 outbreak, according to The Associated Press. At least 6 people were reported dead.

(MORE: Impacts From Yaas)

According to the , a storm surge of up to 4.7 meters (15.4 feet) above normal tide levels was possible near the center of Yaas at landfall along far northeastern Odisha coast.

by storm surge, stranding thousands, The Associated Press reported.

Heavy rainfall hammered parts of the east India and Bangladesh coasts and spread inland.

The town of Chandbali, India, recorded 808 millimeters (31.81 inches) of rain from May 25-27, while Paradeep chalked up 726 millimeters (28.61 inches of rain) in that same period just ahead of and after the passage of Yaas.

India's Meteorological Department issued warnings for heavy rainfall in West Bengal, northern Odisha, Jharkhand and Bihar states.

The northern Bay of Bengal is extremely prone to storm surge flooding since its triangular shape acts to funnel water into Bangladesh and northeast India, and the very shallow bottom of the bay allows the surge to pile up to very high heights. Thus, there is good reason to be concerned when a hurricane-strength tropical cyclone tracks through the Bay of Bengal.

India's West Bengal State and Bangladesh were struck by Tropical Cyclone Amphan a year ago in May. and millions were displaced from their homes.

This was the second tropical cyclone to impact India in just over a week.

Tropical Cyclone Tauktae was the equivalent of a Category 3 hurricane at landfall in northwest India's Gujarat State last Monday night, according to the U.S. Joint Typhoon Warning Center. This tied Tauktae with a May 1999 cyclone for the strongest cyclone by estimated wind speed to landfall in Gujarat, according to NOAA's database.

Tauktae has been blamed for more than 170 deaths in India, 70 from a barge that sank in the Arabian Sea during the storm, the Times of India reported.

Photos: Tropical Cyclone Yaas

Indian army personnel wade through the flooded village roads carrying people to safety as Cyclone Yaas barrels towards India's eastern coast in the Bay of Bengal, in Ramnagar some 111 miles from Kolkata on May 26, 2021. (Dibyangshu Sakar/AFP via Getty Images)

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