By Monday morning, it wielded maximum sustained winds of about 205 kph (125 mph), the equivalent of a strong Category 3 hurricane.
The storm also brings the threat of torrential rainfall across the heart of the Philippine archipelago, including the densely populated region around Manila, the capital.
"This is going to produce significant amounts of rain," CNN weather anchor Derek Van Dam warned. "This part of the world means we could get landslides and flooding."
Typhoon Melor, known in the Philippines as Nona, was expected to clip the sparsely populated northern coast of Samar on Monday. It`ll then move west toward more urban areas on the southern tip of Luzon, the country`s largest island.
Flights canceled, schools closed
The national disaster management agency said roughly 725,000 people had been preemptively evacuated, the vast majority of them in southern Luzon.
Forty domestic flights were canceled, nearly 8,000 sea travelers were stranded in ports and many schools were closed, the agency said Monday.
Situated in an area of the Western Pacific that some meteorologists describe as a "bowling alley" for tropical cyclones, the Philippines is frequently buffeted by typhoons.
The deadliest to hit the country in recent years was Super Typhoon Haiyan -- one of the most powerful storms ever to make landfall -- which left more than 7,000 people dead or missing in November 2013.
The worst of Melor`s wind and rain is expected to affect areas at least 100 kilometers north of Tacloban, the city that was devastated by Haiyan.
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