Pabuk gradually intensified as it moved northwestward, getting upgraded to a typhoon by the JTWC on August 15, with the JMA following suit not too long after.

By August 17, Pabuk briefly reached its initial peak strength as a low-end Category 2 typhoon before slowly weakening.

[nb 1] On August 13, the Japan Meteorological Agency started to track a tropical depression that was embedded to the monsoon to the north-northwest of Saipan.

All agencies upgraded 14W to a tropical storm the next day, after satellite imagery depicted a well-defined Low-level Circulation Center along with gale-force winds to the south of it.

By August 17, Pabuk briefly reached its initial peak strength as a low-end Category 2 typhoon as it moved west-northwest[3] before slowly weakening.

Pabuk weakened to tropical storm intensity when it hit the southern coast of Japan, south of Osaka, on 12:00 UTC of August 21.

[1] Pabuk brought heavy rainfall in the southern part of Honshu, which flooded many homes and disrupting sea and air travel.