Extreme weather has been a steady presence in the news this year, and the weekend brought another reminder in southern China, where a mudslide tied to a passing typhoon buried part of a village.
In Suichuan County, in China's Jiangxi province, a mudslide buried a village and damaged twelve homes, part of the fallout from Typhoon Saudel during this year's Pacific typhoon season. At least one person was killed and eleven others were reported missing as rescue teams worked to assess the damage. Mudslides of this kind are a recurring risk in hilly, densely populated parts of southern China during typhoon season, when heavy rain saturates hillsides already weakened by earlier storms.
The event comes amid a broader stretch of active weather being tracked around the world. Wildfires have continued to burn across parts of Canada this season, contributing to the kind of smoke and air quality concerns that have become a recurring late summer story in North America. In Europe, a series of heatwaves has been recorded through the summer months, while forecasters have also been watching the early stages of a developing El Nino pattern for the 2026 to 2027 period, a climate cycle that tends to influence rainfall and temperature patterns across large parts of the world for months at a time.
None of these individual events are unusual on their own, but taken together they illustrate how much of the year's weather has been shaped by an unusually active combination of storms, heat, and shifting ocean patterns across multiple continents at once.
Rescue crews in Jiangxi are continuing to search for the missing, while meteorologists continue to monitor the developing El Nino pattern for signs of how it may shape weather into next year.
Where did the mudslide happen?
In Suichuan County in China's Jiangxi province, following rain from Typhoon Saudel.
What is El Nino and why does it matter?
It is a recurring climate pattern in the Pacific Ocean that can shift rainfall and temperature patterns across many parts of the world for months at a time.