Due to its proximity to the Philippines, PAGASA assigned it the name Labuyo and began issuing advisories on a disturbed area of tropical weather to the east of the islands on September 19. The JMA started to warn on the system on the same day. On September 20 it was classified as Tropical Depression 17W by the Joint Typhoon Warning Center. On September 21, it was upgraded to Tropical Storm Damrey. It strengthened into a typhoon on September 24. Damrey is a Cambodian word for elephant.