early on june 20, and area of low pressure about 760 km (470 miles), east of the philippines began to be monitored by both the jtwc and jma. that evening, the jtwc issued a tropical cyclone formation alert. soon afterwards, pagasa upgraded the system into a tropical depression, naming it as "falcon". at the time of the upgrade, falcon was about 1000 km (620 miles), east northeast of cebu city. during the evening of june 21, the jtwc also reported that falcon had strengthened into a tropical depression. on june 22, both the jtwc and the jma upgraded falcon into a tropical storm, and the jma named it meari. meari leaves philippines with 2 deaths and 5 missing. in the afternoon on june 24, the jma upgraded meari to a severe tropical storm as it passed okinawa, japan.