Typhoon Kajiki steadily intensified over the South China Sea last weekend into a category 2 storm with sustained wind speeds of 115mph. It made landfall near the coastal city of Vinh in Vietnam on Monday afternoon, having slightly weakened but still packing a punch with winds of up to 100mph and torrential rainfall.
Kajiki’s wind threat soon faded after landfall, but the flood risk continued into Tuesday and Wednesday as the system moved inland. Parts of central and northern Vietnam, as well as Thailand, experienced 300-400mm of rainfall.
Seven people were killed in Vietnam, with flood water damaging more than 10,000 homes. The area is also home to thousands of hectares of rice plantations, some of which have also been affected by the extreme rainfall. Power outages and flooding have also reached the capital, Hanoi, where the outer bands of the storm continued to produce heavy rainfall into Tuesday and Wednesday.
The duration of torrential rains from Typhoon Kajiki led to an elevated landslide risk across Laos and Thailand on Thursday. Landslides were reported in 12 Thai provinces, including the popular tourist destination of Chiang Mai, where four people were killed. Another person drowned in Mae Hong Son, bringing the death toll to five in Thailand, with a further 15 injured.
Further rains can be expected over Thailand, Laos and Vietnam over the weekend as another system, designated as tropical depression 20W by the Joint Typhoon Warning Centre, now over the South China Sea, tracks westwards over the region. This will prolong the risk of landslides and could hamper rescue efforts.
Monsoon floods across India and Pakistan continued this week, with 200,000 people evacuated across the Punjab province of Pakistan alone. Further extreme monsoon rains fell over the region this week, as well as across parts of India, raising fears that water released from dams in India would cause flooding downstream in Pakistan.
At least 34 people died in Kashmir, adding to the wider death toll of about 800 caused by the 2025 monsoon season, which has been the wettest across the region in 12 years. Torrential rains are expected to continue across north-west India next week, before the monsoon season begins to wind down throughout September.
The monsoon season across the south-west of the US is also in full swing, as thunderstorms affected Phoenix, Arizona early this week. A spectacular dust storm moved through the area as a result of these thunderstorms on Tuesday afternoon.
Torrential rain from monsoon storms can help to produce strong wind gusts that push out in advance of the rain, picking up dust and sand from the previously dry landscape into large dust clouds. However, the heavy rainfall also caused disruption on Wednesday morning, flooding an underpass downtown, stranding several cars.