A Very Severe Cyclonic Storm is the third highest category used by the India Meteorological Department (IMD) to classify tropical cyclones, within the North Indian Ocean tropical cyclone basin between the Malay Peninsula and the Arabian Peninsula. Within the basin a very severe cyclonic storm is defined as a tropical cyclone that has 3-minute mean maximum sustained wind speeds of between 64–89 knots (119–165 km/h; 74–102 mph). The category was introduced alongside the Super Cyclonic Storm category during 1999 in order to replace the previously used Severe Cyclonic Storm with Core of Hurricane Winds. However, it was bifurcated during 2015, when the IMD introduced a new Extremely Severe Cyclonic Storm category. There have been at least eight storms that have attained such an intensity. The m