When it developed in the southern Bay of Bengal on 13 May, the storm that was going to become cyclone Amphan was a low pressure system. It travelled north from a point a couple of hundred kilometres east of Colombo, Sri Lanka, seeking warmer waters, gathering power. The India Meteorological Department (IMD) issued its first warning the same day, predicting that it would intensify into a cyclone by the evening of 16 May.