BEIJING — September 4, 2026: Typhoon Saudel has unleashed another round of destructive flooding across eastern and southern China, swamping communities, disrupting transport and forcing emergency evacuations after making an extraordinary three landfalls in the country within days.
The storm’s latest impact has been felt across Fujian and parts of Guangdong, where torrential rain inundated streets and homes as authorities warned that saturated ground and swollen rivers could trigger further flash floods and landslides.
In Fuding, Fujian province, firefighters were filmed pushing through waist-deep floodwater while carrying elderly residents to safety. In nearby Jinxi village, floodwaters swept through the mountainous tea-growing community and caused a three-storey brick house to collapse, according to footage verified by Reuters. Vehicles were also submerged as water surged through urban and rural areas.
Saudel Has Already Hit China Three Times
What makes Saudel particularly unusual is not simply the amount of rain it has produced.
The typhoon first struck China’s eastern Zhejiang province on August 28, making landfall near Yuhuan at about 8:05am with maximum sustained winds of around 35 metres per second. Barely an hour later, it came ashore again near Wenzhou with winds of roughly 33 metres per second, according to Xinhua.
After weakening and taking an unusual path, Saudel strengthened again before making its third Chinese landfall at approximately 6:30am on September 3 in Zhangpu County, Fujian. Winds near its centre were about 23 metres per second at that point, according to the Fujian meteorological authorities cited by Xinhua.
Saudel is identified by Chinese authorities as the 18th typhoon of the 2026 season, while Reuters reports that it is the seventh typhoon to hit China this year. Those figures refer to different measurements: one counts the storms designated during the regional season, while the latter refers to typhoons affecting or making landfall in China.
Schools Shut, Ferries Stopped as Flood Threat Grows
Authorities have taken increasingly aggressive precautions as Saudel continues to dump rain.
Schools in Fuzhou and Quanzhou suspended in-person activities, tourist attractions were temporarily closed and 24 passenger ferry routes along Fujian’s coast were suspended, according to reports citing state broadcaster CCTV. Public transport has also been disrupted in affected locations, while emergency flood-control measures have been activated.
Evacuation figures have changed as the storm has moved through different regions.
Ahead of Saudel’s first two landfalls on August 28, approximately 247,700 residents living in high-risk areas of Fujian had been evacuated, with more than 80,000 emergency personnel and tens of thousands of pieces of equipment put on standby, according to Xinhua.
Reuters’ latest September 4 report separately said more than 83,000 Fujian residents had been evacuated as Saudel tracked inland, while hundreds of thousands of people had been relocated across Zhejiang and surrounding provinces since late August. The figures describe different stages and groups within the wider emergency response rather than a single cumulative evacuation total.
One Chinese City Has Been Hit Three Times in Less Than Two Months
Perhaps the most striking part of Saudel’s story is what has happened to Yuhuan.
The coastal Zhejiang city has now been struck by three typhoons in less than two months, an exceptionally rare sequence, according to Chinese meteorological authorities.
TVB reported that Saudel became the third storm to hit the same part of Zhejiang in that short period when it arrived on August 28, bringing strong winds, high waves and transport disruptions.
Saudel’s path has also been unusual. Instead of simply continuing inland and dissipating, the system took a rare southwestward turn before later making its Fujian landfall, extending the period during which communities faced heavy rain and flood threats.
The Bigger Warning: China’s Typhoon Season Is Running Hot
Saudel is part of a much wider pattern.
Chinese meteorological data cited by Xinhua showed that 24 typhoons had formed over the northwestern Pacific and South China Sea by September 1 — 10.4 more than the historical average for the same point in the year.
Seven had already made landfall in China, which was 2.1 above average, while officials said typhoon activity between June and August had been unusually intense, accompanied by widespread heavy rainfall and frequent extreme precipitation.
China’s National Climate Center also warned that another two to three typhoons could make landfall in or significantly affect the country during September, particularly along eastern and southern coastal regions.
That means Saudel may not be the final major tropical threat Chinese authorities face this month.
El Niño Adds Another Layer of Concern
Meteorologists cited by Reuters have linked this year’s unusual typhoon behaviour partly to the developing El Niño pattern.
During El Niño conditions, changes in atmospheric circulation — including the positioning of the Western Pacific subtropical high — can alter tropical cyclone tracks and help steer storms toward parts of eastern China.
The warning became more significant this week when the World Meteorological Organization, the United Nations’ weather and climate agency, said the current El Niño is expected to strengthen substantially.
WMO forecasts show an “exceptionally high likelihood of nearly 100%” that El Niño will persist through February 2027. The agency says the event could become exceptionally strong before peaking toward the end of 2026, increasing risks of disruptive rainfall, drought and extreme heat in different regions of the world.
WMO Secretary-General Celeste Saulo cautioned that, if the current trajectory continues, the event could exceed anything seen since the agency’s comparable monitoring began about four decades ago.
That does not mean El Niño alone caused Typhoon Saudel or any individual flood. But the combination of an unusually active typhoon season, saturated terrain and a strengthening global climate pattern is giving emergency officials more reason to prepare for repeated extreme-weather events rather than treating Saudel as an isolated storm.
The Immediate Danger May Now Be the Rain
Even as Saudel loses some of its tropical-cyclone strength, the threat does not disappear with its winds.
China’s Ministry of Natural Resources has warned that continued downpours could trigger landslides, flash floods and other secondary disasters, particularly where rivers are already above warning levels and low-lying communities have been inundated.
Xinhua said heavy to torrential rain was expected across much of Fujian as well as parts of Guangdong, Jiangxi, Hunan and Taiwan into Friday, extending the danger well beyond Saudel’s immediate landfall zone.
And Saudel arrived only days after Typhoon Narra soaked Guangxi, Hainan and Guangdong, meaning some areas of southern China entered the latest storm already dealing with the consequences of earlier extreme rainfall.
For residents along China’s eastern and southern coastline, that may be the most important part of the forecast: Saudel’s third landfall is already history, but the flooding, landslide risk and increasingly unusual typhoon season are not necessarily finished.
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