Typhoon Noul slammed into southern China near the city of Huizhou in Guangdong province at about 3:50 a.m. local time on July 26, 2026. Chinese state media said it was the strongest typhoon to hit China in 2026 so far. At least 10 people were killed in southern China after the storm came ashore, and at least three people died in the Philippines before Noul reached China. A typhoon is a powerful tropical storm with violent winds and heavy rain, similar to what Americans call a hurricane. China's weather agency issued an orange alert as the storm hit the coast, after issuing a red alert — the highest warning level — as it approached. Xinhua

Noul was the 12th typhoon to hit China in 2026 and the third to make landfall in a single month, following Typhoon Bavi and Typhoon Maysak. The Hindu The storm started as a tropical depression — a weather system with some thunderstorms but not yet strong enough to be a typhoon — over open waters on or around July 23. Forecasters expected it to grow into a full typhoon within 12 to 24 hours before reaching the Chinese coast. Xinhua The Hong Kong Observatory tracked the storm under the name "2612" and watched it grow from a tropical storm into a severe tropical storm. By 3 a.m. on July 26, the storm was centered about 90 kilometers east-northeast of the Hong Kong Observatory. HKO

In Guangdong, more than 801,000 people were moved to safety as of Sunday. AP News After hitting land, Noul brought heavy rain and flooding across much of southern China, and the storm was expected to keep moving inland and get weaker. Reuters At one point the storm was located about 240 kilometers north-northwest of Hong Kong. HKO

Hong Kong felt the storm's effects even though it was not hit directly. The Hong Kong Observatory raised its lowest typhoon warning, called Signal 1, by 8:40 p.m. on Friday, July 25, as Noul approached. Reuters The Observatory later issued a thunderstorm warning at 11:15 a.m. on July 26 and kept it in place until 3:15 p.m., warning that strong thunderstorms were expected across the area. HKO Hong Kong International Airport canceled about 360 passenger flights. BBC

On Saturday, strong winds tore multi-storey bamboo scaffolding off a building construction site along Cheung Sha Wan Road in Hong Kong's Cheung Sha Wan district. The scaffolding fell onto a neighboring building. Hong Kong police received many calls about it. No injuries were reported. BBC Reuters Connect

The broader context here is about how often these storms are coming. Three typhoons hitting China in a single month, with Noul the strongest of 2026 so far, puts a lot of pressure on Guangdong's emergency response systems. Moving more than 801,000 people to safety shows how large these preparedness efforts have become during severe storms. The fact that China's weather agency raised its warning from orange to red before the storm hit, then went back to orange at landfall, shows that the storm's strength kept changing as it approached the coast, making it harder to decide when and where to evacuate people.

For Hong Kong, the storm passed about 90 kilometers from the city's observatory at its closest point, near enough to disrupt flights and infrastructure without a direct hit. The 360 canceled flights at one of Asia's busiest airports show how even a close call can ripple through travel and shipping across the region. Noul had already caused deaths in the Philippines before reaching China, with at least three fatalities reported there. InformNNY

As Noul weakened and moved inland, attention turned to the risk of flooding across Guangdong and nearby provinces, where heavy rain continued well after the storm's center had passed.