A trough to its south turned the system to the north-northwest before intensifying to a severe tropical storm as it entered the Philippine Area of Responsibility, assigning the name Elang by the PAGASA.

It then reached its peak intensity early the next day, with maximum sustained winds of 240 km/h (150 mph) and a minimum barometric pressure of 896 hPa, equivalent to a super typhoon on the Saffir-Simpson Scale.

[1] At 00:00 UTC (8:00 am CST) on July 20, the China Meteorological Agency started to monitor an area of convection, located nearly 535 miles to the southwest of Palikir, Federated States of Micronesia.

[2] On the next day, the system's organization became obscured due to moderate wind shear, although the CMA upgraded the depression to a tropical storm at 12:00 UTC (8:00 pm CST) based on their estimates of 65 km/h (40 mph).

[2] Shortly before midnight, at 23:00 UTC (9:00 am ChST, the JTWC started to issue their first routined advisory as Tropical Depression 05W, based on synoptic data by the Caroline Islands and the same estimate by the CMA of 55 km/h (34 mph).

It then reached its peak intensity early the next day, with maximum sustained winds of 240 km/h (150 mph) and a minimum barometric pressure of 896 hPa, equivalent to a super typhoon on the Saffir-Simpson Scale.