- Also called:
- Typhoon Tino
- Date:
- 2025
Typhoon Kalmaegi
When did Typhoon Kalmaegi become a typhoon?
How many people were killed by Typhoon Kalmaegi in the Philippines by November 7?
What impact did Typhoon Kalmaegi have on Vietnam and Thailand?
Typhoon Kalmaegi, late-season tropical cyclone whose strong winds and heavy rains brought widespread damage to several islands in the central Philippines, as well as to Vietnam and Thailand. The typhoon’s maximum sustained wind speed was measured at 114 miles (183 km) per hour, with peak gusts (that is, short bursts of stronger wind lasting a few seconds) of about 130 miles (205 km) per hour. Its minimum pressure of 935 hectopascals (1 hectopascal = 1 millibar) was recorded on November 6. By the following evening the number of deaths associated with Typhoon Kalmaegi had reached 206 and more than 100 people were missing.
Origin and early path
A low-pressure system originated in the Philippine Sea northeast of the Yap Islands in Micronesia early on October 30. The system grew into a tropical depression on November 1 and developed into a tropical storm that evening, when it was given the international name Kalmaegi.
The criteria for classifying and grading storms may differ among various weather monitoring agencies (see also Saffir-Simpson hurricane scale). Here are the wind-speed criteria used by PAGASA for classifying storms:
- Tropical depression: A weather system of rotating winds up to 38 miles (62 km) per hour
- Tropical storm: A tropical cyclone with wind speeds from 38 miles (62 km) per hour to 55 miles (88 km) per hour
- Severe tropical storm: A tropical cyclone with wind speeds from about 54 miles (87 km) per hour to 73 miles (117 km) per hour
- Typhoon: A tropical cyclone with wind speeds from about 73 miles (118 km) per hour to 114 miles (184 km) per hour
- Super typhoon: A tropical cyclone with a maximum wind speed of more than 115 miles (185 km) per hour
On November 2 the storm entered the Philippine Area of Responsibility, an area around the Philippines where typhoon activity is closely monitored by the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical, and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA), the country’s meteorological agency. The storm was assigned the domestic name Tino and monitored as it intensified into a severe tropical storm. On November 3 Kalmaegi became a typhoon, according to reports from PAGASA.
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Landfall and aftermath
The Philippines
Moving west, Kalmaegi made its first landfall on southern Leyte island at 12:00 am local time on November 4 near the town Silago, with maximum sustained winds of about 81 miles (130 km) per hour. The storm made additional landfalls on Cebu and Negros islands later that morning. Kalmaegi was thus the 20th weather system of tropical-storm strength or higher to strike the archipelago in 2025. The typhoon killed 188 people in the Philippines and caused widespread flooding, especially on Cebu, where several homes were badly damaged and more than 500,000 people were displaced. Cebu, the hardest-hit island, was in the process of recovering from a magnitude-6.9 earthquake that occurred on September 30, 2025, when Kalmaegi arrived there at 5:10 am. Philippine government officials noted that the storm had claimed the lives of 139 people on the island by November 7.
The storm tracked west-northwest on November 6 after interacting with a subtropical ridge (a large area of high pressure) near Luzon island. After Kalmaegi exited the Philippines, it moved west into the South China Sea toward Vietnam with maximum sustained winds increasing to 114 miles (183 km) per hour.
Vietnam
In Vietnam, more than 260,000 people were evacuated from provinces such as Gia Lai and Quang Ngai ahead of the storm. It was expected that Kalmaegi would exacerbate existing infrastructure damage from earlier typhoons, and government officials warned of increased risk from landslides (due to saturated soils on mountainsides) and waves at sea as high as 30 feet (10 meters) on the east-central coast.
Kalmaegi made landfall in Vietnam roughly half past noon on November 6 with sustained wind speeds of about 92 miles (148 km) per hour, becoming the 13th storm in 2025 to strike the country. The typhoon’s arrival came close on the heels of lingering damage from Super Typhoon Ragasa (September 25) and Typhoons Bualoi (September 29) and Matmo (October 6), and it brought torrential rains and destructive floods that left roughly 1.28 million households without electricity. News outlets reported that Kalmaegi had killed five people in Vietnam by November 7 and that dozens of homes had collapsed from wind and rain damage, with the roofs of nearly 3,000 others having been torn away.
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The typhoon weakened into a tropical storm and passed over northeastern Cambodia and southern Laos and into Thailand by the evening of November 7. Though no longer a typhoon, Kalmaegi triggered heavy rainfall alerts in those countries, with flooding associated with the storm linked to 13 deaths in Thailand.