page_title: Typhoon Xangsane
section_title: Meteorological history
hierarchical_section_title: Typhoon Xangsane / Meteorological history
caption_attribution_description: Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale TD TS 1 2 3 4 5 English: Typhoon Xangsane (2006) track. Uses the color scheme from the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale.
context_page_description: Typhoon Xangsane, known in the Philippines as Typhoon Milenyo, was a typhoon that affected the Philippines, Vietnam, and Thailand during the 2006 Pacific typhoon season. The name Xangsane was submitted by Laos and means elephant.
  Xangsane made landfall in the Philippines, battering the northern islands with torrential rains and strong winds, and causing widespread flooding and landslides. After passing over Manila and emerging over the South China Sea, the typhoon made a second landfall in central Vietnam, also causing flooding and landslides there and in Thailand. The storm was responsible for at least 279 deaths, mostly in the Philippines and Vietnam, and at least US$747 million in damage.
context_section_description: The nucleus of Typhoon Xangsane originated from a disturbance embedded within the monsoon trough to the east of the Philippines. On September 23, a persistent area of convective thunderstorms was observed about 100 mi (160 km) northwest of Palau, in an environment favorable to tropical cyclogenesis. The Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) declared the formation of a tropical depression at 00:00 UTC on September 25. Simultaneously, the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA) began releasing warnings in relation to the tropical depression with the local name Milenyo. The Joint Typhoon Warning Center (JTWC; a joint United States Navy – Air Force agency that monitors tropical cyclones globally) issued a Tropical Cyclone Formation Alert around the same time, designating the disturbance Tropical Depression 18W at 12:00 UTC. The system quickly organized as it drifted westward, and according to both the JMA and the JTWC, it attained tropical storm intensity near 00:00 UTC on September 26. Consequently, it received the international name Xangsane. The name was submitted by Laos and means "elephant".
  The storm began to accelerate in forward speed and shift its direction toward the west-northwest, attaining typhoon intensity at 18:00 UTC on September 26. At the time, it was centered about 390 mi (630 km) east-southeast of Manila, the capital city of the Philippines. Over the next several hours, Xangsane rapidly intensified as it approached the archipelago; the JMA estimates that the typhoon achieved its maximum 10-minute sustained winds of 155 km/h (100 mph) early on September 27, with a corresponding central pressure of 940 millibars (28 inHg). According to the JTWC, the typhoon peaked with 1-minute winds of 230 km/h (145 mph), corresponding to Category 4 strength on the Saffir–Simpson hurricane wind scale. The center of the powerful storm skirted the northern coast of Samar and continued west-northwestward. With a well-defined eye evident on visible satellite imagery, Xangsane struck southern Luzon around 12:00 UTC, and remained over the Philippines for the next day or so. Due to extensive interaction with land, the typhoon's structure deteriorated, and the JMA downgraded it to a severe tropical storm early on September 28. Xangsane traveled over the Manila area before entering the South China Sea and turning due west, steered by the subtropical ridge to its north over mainland China.
  Over open waters, the system encountered conditions favorable to renewed intensification, including warm sea surface temperatures, light vertical wind shear, and strong upper-level divergence. As a result, it reattained typhoon status by 18:00 UTC on September 28. Continued strengthening yielded a secondary peak on September 29, marked by 10-minute winds of 150 km/h (90 mph), according to the JMA, and 1-minute winds of 215 km/h (130 mph) as ascertained by the JTWC. Tracking westward at around 17 km/h (11 mph), Xangsane maintained its intensity until it neared Vietnam, when dry air and land interaction began to slowly diminish the typhoon on September 30. Just after 00:00 UTC on October 1, the system made landfall along the central coast of Vietnam, near Da Nang. At the time, Xangsane was a low-end typhoon, with 10-minute winds of 130 km/h (80 mph). The storm quickly declined in force as it progressed inland through Indochina: it weakened to a severe tropical storm around 12:00 UTC, and to a tropical storm six hours later. Although the JTWC issued its final warning on Xangsane just after landfall, the agency continued to track the storm until 00:00 on October 2. At the same time, the JMA downgraded Xangsane to a tropical depression; it dissipated later that day, over Thailand.
caption: Map plotting the track and the intensity of the storm, according to the Saffir–Simpson scale
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