The storm rapidly intensified to typhoon status on September 16, and several days later passed north of Saipan in the Northern Marianas Islands.

On September 27, Mireille made landfall near Nagasaki in southwestern Japan with winds of 175 km/h (109 mph), the strongest since Typhoon Nancy in 1961.

The typhoon first threatened Guam, although it passed well to the north of the island, bringing damaging winds to northern Saipan.

The winds caused record power outages across Japan that affected 7.36 million people, or about 13% of total customers.

The origins of Mireille were from a poorly-organized area of convection, or thunderstorms, associated with the monsoon trough near the Marshall Islands on September 13.

[2] That day, the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA)[nb 2] began tracking the system as a tropical depression.

[2] The JTWC later determined in a post-storm analysis that Mireille had attained tropical storm status 12 hours earlier on the previous day.

For several days, Mireille failed to intensify due to wind shear from the larger Tropical Storm Luke to the north.

[4] Around the time of reaching peak intensity, Mireille turned more to the northwest along the southwestern periphery of the subtropical ridge.

[4] That day, the typhoon accelerated to the northeast due to increasing mid-level winds from the southwest, passing west of Okinawa.

[2] According to the JMA, Mireille re-intensified slightly on September 27 to a secondary peak of 175 km/h (109 mph),[4] aided by unusually warm water temperatures in the East China Sea.

Crossing the island, the typhoon weakened to tropical storm status early on September 28, and shortly thereafter became fully extratropical in the Sea of Okhotsk.

[9] After crossing the dateline, Mireille's remnants turned northeast and struck the Seward Peninsula on October 3 before moving over Arctic Alaska.

[10] Early tropical cyclone computer models anticipated Mireille would pass close to Guam, prompting officials to undergo preparations for the storm.

[7] Transportation in Japan was disrupted after 480 domestic flights cancelled, stranding 58,000 individuals,[15] and road, rail, and ferry traffic was halted.

[19] The high winds downed trees, damaged roofs,[12] and left record power outages,[18] affecting 7.36 million people, or about 13% of total customers.

[2] The strongest wind gusts occurred concurrently with a sudden drop in atmospheric pressure, primarily from Kyushu and extending east-northeastward into the Chūgoku region of Honshu.

Winds were lightest in eastern Honshu,[8] Mireille also dropped heavy rainfall, mostly on Shikoku, peaking at 406 mm (16.0 in) at Kito, Tokushima.

[30] Mireille produced heavy rainfall on Okinawa, totaling 258 mm (10.2 in), which allowed water restrictions there to be lifted for the rest of the year.

[nb 4][30] In Kyushu, the heavy rainfall caused flooding and landslides,[33] which buried several houses in Miyazaki Prefecture and forced 75 people to evacuate.

[34] The high wind knocked over many cypress or cedar trees, totaling 22,529 hectares (55,670 acres) and accounting for ¥64 billion (US$530 million) in damage in Ōita Prefecture alone.

[12] On nearby Shikoku island, high winds and rains caused ¥4.7 billion (US$35.7 million) in damage in Tokushima,[nb 4] mostly related to fisheries, crops, and houses.

[40] A record storm surge, in conjunction with high winds, damaged a school in Sakaide,[41] as well as a floating pier and coastal road in nearby Ehime Prefecture.

[42] The storm track brought Mireille west of the most populated island of Honshu, limiting damage there compared to Kyushu.

[28] In Yamaguchi Prefecture, the Takeda Pharmaceutical Company was flooded with 0.6 m (2.0 ft) of waters, forcing workers to move to another plant in the United States.

[13] In Hiroshima, lack of power caused traffic congestion, shut down banks, and disrupted hospitals.

[28] The widespread power outages related to Mireille prompted the government to reconstruct transmission towers with anemometer, or wind measurement devices.

Following the storm, insurance companies paid $6 billion to policy holders in Japan, which was a world record related to wind damage; this was surpassed less than a year later by Hurricane Andrew striking Florida.

[53] Due to the severity of damage and loss of life caused by the storm, the name Mireille was retired and replaced with Melissa.