Super Typhoon Ragasa has struck Southern China near Hong Kong after killing at least 17 people in Taiwan. The powerful storm made landfall early Wednesday morning, according to Chinese state media.
Hong Kong had been virtually shut down as of earlier this week as it braced for impact from Ragasa. Flights in and out have been suspended until Thursday. Many people in the city of nearly 8 million rushed to supermarkets, clearing out shelves prior to the storm's arrival. Homes and businesses boarded up their windows to prevent damage from flying debris.
Before Wednesday's landfall in China's southeastern Guangdong province, Ragasa hit Taiwan hard with fierce winds and torrential rain. Officials there described the damage as "far worse than anticipated," per BBC News. The chief of the village of Dama, Wang Tse-an, was a witness to the tumultuous situation after heavy rain left many people stranded. "It's chaotic now," Wang told Reuters. "There are mud and rocks everywhere. Some flooding has subsided but some remains." The floodwaters submerged several vehicles and washed away important bridges in the region.
Super Typhoon Ragasa became the world's most powerful tropical cyclone of 2025 early Monday when its maximum sustained winds reached 165 mph, the equivalent of a Category 5 hurricane. The storm later reached a new peak intensity when Ragasa's maximum sustained winds hit 180 mph. "This intensity is approaching the upper limits of what Earth is capable of producing," commented Backpirch Weather on X.
Ragasa was one of three major tropical cyclones that formed within three days in late September during the most active period for hurricane activity globally so far this year. Scientists aboard the International Space Station gazed down on two of them, Typhoon Neoguri and Typhoon Ragasa, over the weekend as the storms intensified in the Pacific Ocean. The third storm was closer to home. Hurricane Gabrielle rapidly intensified to a Category 4 hurricane on Monday, east of Bermuda.
Our warming climate is supercharging extreme weather as heat-trapping gases build up in the atmosphere. After the third-warmest August on record globally, 2025 is practically guaranteed to rank among the planet's top five warmest years on record, according to the National Centers for Environmental Information. Scientists have attributed our warming world as a key driver of catastrophic impacts from several major hurricanes and typhoons. World Weather Attribution found the fingerprints of an overheating planet on last year's Hurricane Helene.
Research recently revealed that the second-deadliest hurricane to ever strike the U.S. was also intensified by our warming world. Nonprofit Climate Central found the unusually warm water that fueled Katrina contributed to the storm's strength, which at one point reached Category 5 status with 175 mph winds.
"Our analysis determined that climate change made these ocean temperatures up to 18 times more likely and, along with tropical climate warming, increased Katrina's maximum sustained wind speed by 5 mph," concluded researchers with Climate Central. "A 5 mph increase could have increased Katrina's damages by 25% or more, according to NOAA."
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