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Gallery|Climate Crisis

Two storms make landfall in Taiwan

In a very rare weather scenario, Typhoon Nesat and Tropical Storm Haitang bring over a metre of water to Taiwan

Taiwan storms
Filipino villagers take advantage of the waves from Tropical Storm Haitang. [Francis R Malasig/EPA]
Published On 31 Jul 2017

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It is not every day that you see one country hit by two cyclones in 24 hours. But how about two storms hitting two countries in 48 hours?

This is exactly what happened when Typhoon Nesat in the western Pacific and Tropical Storm Haitang in the South China Sea combined forces – and moved on similar paths towards Taiwan and then into China.

The first typhoon of the year made landfall on the northeastern coast of Taiwan on Saturday evening.

It crossed the island country in three hours and re-entered the Taiwan Strait as a weakened tropical storm, then made another landfall in Fujian Province of China where it rapidly weakened.

From the south, Tropical Storm Haitang made landfall on Sunday along the southerly coast of Taiwan. Then followed a similar path to Nesat, crossing the Strait and making landfall just to the north of its predecessor on Sunday.

Taiwan recorded some impressive rainfall totals of more than 1,000mm because of the two storms.

Flash flooding, mudslides, and widespread power outages were reported across much of the country.

The remnants of both storms have now combined and continue to bring rain to parts of southeastern China.

Taiwan storms
High-resolution imagery of both Nesat and Haitang before they made landfall. [Nasa]
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Taiwan storms
Hundreds of flights were cancelled out of Taoyuan International Airport, Taiwan. [David Chang/EPA]
Taiwan storms
Winds gusted to more than 185km per hour, knocking out power to hundreds of thousands of people. [Sam Yeh/AFP]
Taiwan storms
Flash flooding and mudslides were widespread across Taiwan as some parts of the island country received more than 1,000mm from the two storms. [AFP]
Taiwan storms
The Philippine region of Luzon is extremely susceptible to cyclones, even if they do not make landfall. [Darryl Go/EPA]
Taiwan storms
After the storm, workers were out cleaning the street from the debris caused by Typhoon Nesat. [Ritchie B. Tongo/EPA]
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Taiwan storms
There was less than 24 hours to do some cleaning up before another expected landfall, this time from Tropical Storm Haitang. [SamYeh/AFP]
Taiwan storms
Even Hong Kong felt the effects of Nesat and Haitang, with increased pollution as the western edges of the storms helped to trap unhealthy air mass. [Jerome Favre/EPA]