tropical cyclones in the region from the coast of Africa to 90° E, south of the equator to 30° S. At the time, the cyclone year was from August 1 to July 31 of the subsequent year. The Joint Typhoon Warning Center (JTWC), which is a joint United States Navy – United States Air Force task force, also issued tropical cyclone warnings for the southwestern Indian Ocean in an unofficial capacity. Aside from a tropical disturbance in August, the season began later than usual, the fourth consecutive season to do so. At the time it had the 4th latest start on record for the first named storm. Only about 20% of seasons have their first storm form after the middle of December, and the first named storm of this season, Ando, did not become a tropical storm until early January. However, January was active with three tropical cyclones, two of which became intense tropical cyclones, due to the active phase of the Madden–Julian oscillation (MJO). February returned to a period of inactivity, and generally there was minimal convection across the basin due to unusually dry air. This was spread by a powerful and persistent ridge that extended eastward from Madagascar, as well as an inactive phase of the MJO. Drought conditions occurred on Réunion due to the lack of rainfall. After three weeks of no tropical cyclones developing worldwide, an event unseen since 1995, the tropics became active again in early April. In contrast with the busy preceding season, this season had much lower activity than usual, with only 36 days in which there was a tropical storm or cyclone active; this was 17 less than normal. However, the number of days with a tropical cyclone was slightly above normal at 15. In general, the southern hemisphere as a whole had the least active season since 1954. There were only five named storms, only the fifth such time since the beginning of the satellite era in 1967. As most storms formed toward the eastern periphery of the basin, damage was much less than the preceding year. Systems Intense Tropical Cyclone Ando The beginnings of Ando can be traced to a circulation within the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) about 400 km (250 mi) south-west of Diego Garcia, which became evident on satellite imagery on December 30. Associated convection, or thunderstorms, gradually organized into a central dense overcast, and the system became