Moving west-northwest, Vanessa began to explosively intensify on October 25, becoming a super typhoon two days later. Super Typhoon Vanessa continued to intensify throughout the day, reaching maximum sustained wind speeds of over the open waters of the West of the Philippines. At its peak, it had a pressure of 880 mb, which makes it tied as the 6th most intense tropical cyclone on record, behind Ida of 1958 only 10 millibars higher than the record-setting Typhoon Tip of 1979 later that day. Its central pressure fell 100 mb in 48 hours, which was at a near record pace. The intense cyclone recurved to the northeast on October 27 and October 28 as a cold front approached from the northwest. Vanessa slowly weakened and began to merge with the frontal boundary, becoming a storm-force extratropical cyclone late on October 30 before getting absorbed by the front later that day.