Typhoon Noul struck the southern Chinese coast in the early hours of Sunday, July 26, bringing gale-force winds and torrential rain to Guangdong province and neighbouring Hong Kong, and prompting the relocation of more than 715,000 people by Sunday morning. China's national weather centre confirmed the typhoon made landfall at around 3:50am local time near Pinghai town in Huidong county, part of the city of Huizhou — approximately 80 kilometres northeast of Hong Kong. With maximum sustained winds of up to 162 kilometres per hour at the time of landfall, Noul is the strongest typhoon to strike China so far in 2026, and the third to hit the country this month alone.

Noul — a Korean word meaning the glow of sunrise or sunset — is the 12th typhoon of the Pacific season. As the storm moved inland and began to weaken, Hong Kong's Observatory raised its storm alert to Typhoon Signal No. 9, the second-highest warning level, before downgrading it to Signal No. 8 by early Sunday morning. Signal No. 8 keeps most businesses and transport links closed. The observatory also issued an Amber Rainstorm Warning, cautioning residents about flash floods as rainfall exceeded 30 millimetres per hour in parts of the city. At least nine people were injured across Hong Kong, and authorities received over 100 reports of fallen trees. A section of scaffolding on a high-rise building also collapsed on Saturday afternoon, though no injuries were reported in that incident. Around 350 flights were cancelled at Hong Kong's international airport on Sunday, with normal operations not expected to resume until the evening.

In Guangdong province — a densely populated coastal region in China's far south — all train services were suspended on Sunday, roads were strewn with debris, and trees were uprooted across multiple counties. The central government's National Development and Reform Commission allocated 100 million yuan (approximately US$14.8 million) to support post-typhoon recovery, including the repair of roads and infrastructure. Meteorologists warned that heavy rain from Noul could persist through Tuesday, affecting inland provinces as far north as Henan and Shandong.

Before intensifying over the South China Sea, Noul clipped the northernmost islands of the Philippines, killing three people and leaving one missing, with more than 9,300 people evacuated and 235 homes damaged, according to the Philippine government's disaster agency. Taiwan also experienced rainfall from the storm as it passed to the island's south before moving away.

Noul's arrival compounds a difficult month for southern and central China. Typhoon Bavi made landfall on July 11, triggering the evacuation of more than two million people, while Typhoon Maysak struck on July 3, causing devastating floods in the Guangxi region that killed 39 people, with further fatalities and hundreds of injuries reported in Hubei province. Scientists have long warned that climate change driven by fossil fuel emissions is increasing both the intensity and frequency of extreme weather events — a concern that carries particular weight for China, the world's largest greenhouse gas emitter, though also a major investor in renewable energy with a stated goal of carbon neutrality by 2060.