Typhoon Saudel brought extensive rainfall to multiple provinces in south-east China during the previous week, triggering widespread evacuations and causing significant damage. The city of Putian in Fujian province recorded 416.5mm of rain within a 24-hour period between Thursday and Friday, while nearby villages experienced even heavier precipitation exceeding 500mm during the same timeframe. Provincial authorities reported that approximately 600,000 people were evacuated from high-risk, flood-prone areas in Fujian, with an additional 128,000 people across 53 counties in Jiangxi province affected by the storm.
The typhoon produced numerous secondary hazards across the affected regions. More than 2,500 teachers and students became trapped in a school compound in Wenzhou, Zhejiang on Wednesday as flash flooding inundated low-lying zones. In Putian, a river embankment collapsed on Thursday, necessitating the rescue of at least 1,260 people and destroying approximately 100 homes. A separate landslide event in Suichuan county, Jiangxi province, claimed three lives on Saturday, with nine additional people unaccounted for.
Saudel represents the seventh typhoon to impact China during the year, arriving shortly after Typhoon Narra had delivered heavy precipitation to Guangdong, Hainan and Guangxi provinces late in the previous month.
Elsewhere, the South African Weather Service issued multiple thunderstorm warnings covering extensive areas of the northern and western provinces during the latter part of the week. Severe weather conditions including disruptive rainfall, damaging winds, lightning and hail affected numerous locations, with rainfall accumulations reaching 75-100mm across portions of the Northern Cape and North West provinces over the weekend period. In Johannesburg, strong winds damaged an apartment building, necessitating the evacuation of eight families after a substantial section of the structure’s roof was removed.
Meanwhile, intense heat affected central-southern plains and Mississippi valley regions of the United States during the weekend, with temperatures reaching the high 30s Celsius. When accounting for elevated humidity levels, apparent heat indices climbed to 40-43C in affected areas. Meteorological forecasts indicated these elevated temperatures would persist throughout the week ahead across midwest and southern states.
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