The typhoon reached its first peak intensity on July 6; subsequently, Maria weakened due to an eyewall replacement cycle, but it reintensified and reached a second, stronger peak intensity on July 9 with 10-minute sustained winds of 195 km/h (121 mph) and a minimum pressure of 915 hPa (mbar; 27.02 inHg).

Over the next three days, it started to gradually weaken due to another eyewall replacement cycle and decreasing sea surface temperatures.

[nb 1] On July 10, Maria brought strong winds to Okinawa Prefecture, inflicting significant crop damage.

From landfall to dissipation, Maria impacted the Chinese provinces of Fujian, Zhejiang, Jiangxi, and Hunan with flooding rain and gusty winds.

On July 3, the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) declared that a tropical depression had formed at 00:00 UTC about 500 km (310 mi) southeast of Guam.

[5] Amid rather favorable environmental conditions encompassing high sea surface temperatures of 30–31 °C (86–88 °F), low-to-moderate wind shear, and wind patterns in the upper troposphere aiding the development of thunderstorm activity,[6] the system intensified modestly, with the JTWC assessing that it became a tropical storm at 00:00 UTC on July 4.

The JTWC assessed that Maria became a super typhoon at 00:00 UTC on July 6,[nb 4][9] possessing maximum sustained winds of 250 km/h (160 mph).

[11] The JMA, however, assessed that Maria continued to strengthen to reach an initial peak intensity at 12:00 UTC with winds of 195 km/h (121 mph) and a central pressure of 925 hPa (mbar; 27.32 inHg).

[13] More substantial reintensification occurred on July 8 as Maria began to accelerate northwest once again and the system regained super typhoon strength at 00:00 UTC.

[14] The JTWC judged Maria to have reached its peak intensity at 12:00 UTC on July 8 with winds of 270 km/h (170 mph), equivalent to Category 5 status on the Saffir–Simpson scale.

[5] Displaying a well-defined eye 37 km (23 mi) wide, the system maintained an impressive satellite presentation into July 9,[15] when the JMA estimated Maria reached peak intensity with winds of 195 km/h (121 mph) and a minimum pressure of 915 hPa (mbar; 27.02 inHg).

Combined with decreasing upper oceanic heat content along the cyclone's path, Maria began to weaken steadily as it turned to the west-northwest.

[17] As the system passed north of Taiwan on July 10, frictional effects with the island's mountains as well as increasing northerly wind shear further weakened the cyclone.

[18] At 01:10 UTC on July 11, Maria made landfall over the Huangqi Peninsula [zh] of Lianjiang County, Fuzhou in Fujian, China.

[5][2] Maria damaged a number of KC-135 aircraft in Andersen Air Force Base when passing near Guam as a tropical storm on July 5.

[20] The air base recorded an unusually high wind gust of 154 km/h (96 mph) associated with the passage of a mesoscale convective vortex and an embedded hot tower—features that often support rapid intensification of tropical cyclones.

[36][37][38] In Jiangxi province, authorities evacuated over 1,100 people, closed 21 tourist attractions, and suspended passenger transport services to Fujian and Zhejiang.

[35] Communications in Fujian were severely disrupted, with 2,901 base stations taken offline and 315 km (196 mi) of networking cables damaged according to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.