on february 23, the storm was packing 1-minute sustained winds of 193 km/h (120 mph), making it a category typhoon, while also generating wave heights up to 12.5 m (41 ft), with wind gusts reaching 240 km/h (150 mph). later that day, wutip reached its initial peak intensity, with 10-minute sustained winds of 185 km/h (115 mph), 1-minute sustained winds of 250 km/h (155 mph), and a minimum central pressure of 925 millibars (27.3 inhg), making the storm a high-end category 4-equivalent super typhoon as it passed to the southwest of guam. this also allowed wutip to surpass typhoon higos from 2015 as the strongest february typhoon on record.