Typhoon Mekkhala

One of the most intense June typhoons since Guchol in 2012, Mekkhala rapidly intensified into a Category 4–equivalent system over the western Pacific before striking southern Taiwan on June 25, 2026. Outer bands brought torrential downpours to Kaohsiung, Tainan, and Pingtung, killing two people — a 73-year-old swept away by floodwaters in Kaohsiung and a 49-year-old found inside a submerged car in Hsinchu County — and closing schools and offices for more than five million residents. A section of Taiwan's main north-south railway line was shut down, and officials evacuated nearly 200 residents from two Hualien townships downstream of a rapidly filling mountain barrier lake.

The storm then scraped Japan's southwest coast on June 26–27, triggering the country's highest-level flood and landslide warnings across western and southern prefectures. Authorities issued a mandatory evacuation order for 2.2 million people in Kyushu and western Honshu — including Kagoshima, Miyazaki, Yamaguchi, and Hiroshima prefectures — and reported 23 injuries in Okinawa, Kagoshima, and Ehime. Heavy rainfall overflowed a reservoir in Hiroshima, inundating nearby homes. A landslide in Yamaguchi Prefecture caused one additional death. More than 200 domestic and international flights were cancelled, numerous Shinkansen and regional rail services were suspended, and a Toyota plant in western Japan temporarily halted production.

The Japanese Red Cross and IFRC coordinated emergency relief and evacuation support across the hardest-hit prefectures. Taiwan's government also mobilized disaster response teams and provided emergency accommodation for displaced families. Damage assessments were ongoing across both countries as the storm moved out to sea.