Typhoon Saudel makes a third landfall in Fujian after dying and reforming at sea

Typhoon Saudel, the 18th named storm of the year, made its third landfall on the Fujian coast at about 6:30 a.m. on 3 September. The provincial meteorological observatory put the centre over Zhangpu County in Zhangzhou, with maximum sustained winds of 23 metres a second near the eye.

The same system had come ashore twice on 28 August along the Zhejiang coast. It then crossed six provincial-level units, Zhejiang, Fujian, Jiangxi, Hunan, Guangxi and Guangdong, before sliding back into the South China Sea through western Guangdong. Most typhoons die inland. Saudel kept a circulation, found warm water, and took its name back.

Why the remnant lived

Shen Yuyang of the China Meteorological Administration called the revival uncommon. After the Zhejiang landfalls a high to the north steered the leftover vortex southwest, then south, as colder air increased the southerly component of the steering flow. The remnant entered the South China Sea instead of filling over land.

Liu Longsheng, a senior engineer at the National Meteorological Center, said the monsoon trough and sea-surface temperatures above 28C in the northern South China Sea supplied the moisture and heat. At 5 a.m. on 2 September the centre sat about 190 kilometres southeast of Shanwei in Guangdong, at tropical-storm strength. The NMC kept a blue typhoon alert.

The Japan Meteorological Agency, at noon JST on 2 September, located Saudel at 22.5N, 116.7E with a central pressure of 992 hPa, 35-knot sustained winds and 50-knot gusts. JMA expected a northeast drift, then a westward turn and a slow fade near the south China coast around 4 September. A second system, Typhoon Krovanh, was tracking south of Japan at the same time.

Rain already on the ground

On 2 September the storm and the monsoon dumped 250 to 280 millimetres on parts of northeastern Fujian. Heavy rain also hit Fuzhou, Wenzhou, Shantou, Kaohsiung and Sanya. The rain belt on 3 September sat over southern Fujian, eastern Guangdong and Taiwan. Combined with Typhoon No. 24, winds of Beaufort 9 to 10 were forecast over much of the South China Sea, the eastern and southern East China Sea, and the Taiwan Strait.

A third landfall at 23 metres a second is not a super-typhoon strike. It is a wet, organised remnant arriving on a coast that has already had two visits from the same name in six days. Drainage, reservoirs and hill slopes in Zhangzhou and the rest of southern Fujian are the immediate risk, not the peak wind.

Saudel’s later track is still listed as uncertain. The NMC said it may merge with a tropical disturbance over the northeastern South China Sea and linger. That would keep rain on Fujian and Guangdong through the week even if the wind field stays modest. The rare fact is already on the map: one name, three landfalls, a dead storm that found the monsoon and came back.