Arnab, the first named storm of the 2026 North Indian Ocean cyclone season, made landfall along the Andhra Pradesh and Yanam coast early on October 28, NASA Earth Observatory reported. The India Meteorological Department recorded sustained winds of 130 kilometers per hour at landfall, classifying it as a "very severe cyclonic storm." The storm came ashore between Bapatla and Visakhapatnam, an area of large cities, farmland and fishing communities.

The cyclone emerged in the Bay of Bengal on October 25, a late start for a basin that usually produces named cyclones in April or May. When NOAA-20's VIIRS instrument captured a nighttime image at 20:12 Universal Time on October 26, sustained winds were about 140 kilometers (85 miles) per hour, according to IMD. News reports cited by the observatory described uprooted trees, flooded crops and homes, disrupted fishing, transport and power networks, and said authorities had evacuated tens of thousands of people before landfall.

The storm formed during an El Niño, a climate pattern that appears roughly every two to seven years. Some research indicates El Niño conditions are associated with less frequent and less intense tropical cyclones in the Bay of Bengal.