Severe Tropical Storm Usagi, known in the Philippines as Tropical Storm Samuel, was a tropical cyclone that affected the Philippines and Southern Vietnam in late November 2018, causing severe damage around the Visayas region and Ho Chi Minh City. The storm formed from a disturbance in the Central Pacific basin on November 3, but did not develop into a tropical storm until almost three weeks later, on November 13. Usagi underwent rapid intensification and peaked in intensity before making its final landfall on Vũng Tàu, Bà Rịa–Vũng Tàu province as a weakening tropical storm on November 25. While never considered as a typhoon by the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA), the Joint Typhoon Warning Center (JTWC) assessed its intensity to be equivalent to Category 2 status on the Saffir–Simpson sca