Following a particularly strong 2024 Typhoon Season, 2025 was historic in many ways, such as having the deadliest typhoon in decades and the first typhoon to make landfall in Chiayi. In this blog, we will present a brief summary of this unforgettable Typhoon season.
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- Best time to visit: March-May, and October – November when the temperatures are nice and there is not as much rain
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- Book tours and activities in Taipei on Klook
- Stay connected with a local SIM
- Rent a car to explore distant sights
In this blog, we will list the major typhoons and storms that affected Taiwan in chronological order.
Basic Summary of the 2025 Typhoon Season:
- Number of Typhoon landfalls: 2 (3 if you count Typhoon Fung-Wong
- Total amount of rain (from the storms below): 3200mm (3.2 meters, 10 feet)
- Number of fatalities: 22
- Number of injuries: over 400
- Agricultural Damage costs: over NT$10 billion (US$300 million)
- Reservoirs: Mostly Full
Typhoon Danas 丹妮絲颱風 (2025)
Typhoon Danas was the first named typhoon of the 2025 Pacific Typhoon Season. It made landfall in Taiwan and China before dissipating over southeast China. This typhoon had a rare track that impacted the west coast of Taiwan, and is the first recorded Typhoon to make landfall in Chiayi County. In this blog, I detail some of the major events and overall situation in Taiwan during the Typhoon, as well as my own experience during this typhoon and past typhoons in Taiwan.
Basic Summary of the Typhoon 台風丹妮絲大概的狀況
Typhoon Danas became a depression on July 3rd, 2025, and was upgraded to a tropical storm the same day. On July 6th, it strengthened into a Typhoon. It had max winds of 120 km/h, making it a category 2. The Gangkou River flooded, causing extensive damage in the area. This storm killed two people in Taiwan and injured over 700. Estimated agricultural damage was 113 million USD.
Check out our full blog post on Typhoon Danas here.
Typhoon Podul 楊柳颱風 (2025)
Typhoon Podul was the 11th tropical cyclone of the 2025 Pacific Typhoon Season. It made landfall in Taiwan and China, before dissipating over the Chinese Mainland. This was a classic Taiwan Typhoon, moving from East to West very quickly, and the strongest Typhoon of the 2025 season so far. In this blog, we will share some memories of this storm and its impact on Taiwan.
Storm Formation and Path
Typhoon Podul became a depression on August 6th, 2025, and was upgraded to a tropical storm on August 8th. On August 9th, it strengthened into a Typhoon. The Typhoon had maximum winds of 150 km/h, making it a solid Category 2, and the strongest Typhoon of the season so far. Podul landed in Taimali, Taitung, leaving one person missing and 112 injured.
Check out our full blog on Typhoon Podul here.
Typhoon Ragasa (Matao’an Barrier Lake Overflow) 樺加沙颱風 (馬太鞍溪堰塞湖溢流)
Typhoon Ragasa was the 18th tropical storm system of the 2025 Pacific Typhoon Season. It made landfall in the Philippines and China before dissipating over the Chinese Mainland. Even though the Typhoon did not hit Taiwan directly, it was the deadliest typhoon in Taiwan during the last 16 years, and the strongest Typhoon of the 2025 season so far. In this blog, we will share some memories of this storm and its impact on Taiwan.
Basic Summary of the Typhoon
Typhoon Ragasa became a depression on September 18, 2025, and was upgraded to a tropical storm on the same day. On September 19th, it strengthened into a Typhoon. The Typhoon had maximum winds of 205 km/h, making it a solid Category 5 Super Typhoon, and the strongest Typhoon of the season so far.
Matao’an Barrier Lake Overflow 馬太鞍溪堰塞湖溢流
On 23 September 2025, the Matai’an (Fata’an) Creek landslide-dam (barrier lake) in Hualien County, Taiwan, suddenly overflowed after heavy rains from Typhoon Ragasa. The lake had formed upstream in July 2025 when a massive landslide—preceded by slope loosening from the 3 April 2024 Hualien earthquake—blocked the creek during rains from Tropical Storm Wipha. Multiple overflow pulses on Sept. 23 sent debris-laden floods downstream, destroying the Matai’an Creek Bridge on Provincial Highway 9 and breaching levees, which inundated Guangfu Township and affected nearby Wanrong, Fenglin, and Shoufeng.
Authorities had warned and expanded evacuation zones ahead of the typhoon; thousands relocated or took vertical evacuation to upper floors. Nevertheless, the disaster caused severe losses: as of Oct. 2, officials reported 19 dead, 5 missing, and 156 injured; over 1,600 homes and several public buildings were mud-inundated, more than 504 hectares of farmland flooded, and major utility outages occurred.
Geomorphically, the dam crest incision (“down-cutting”) was extreme—experts said it likely reached breach-level severity. After the overflows, the lake level fell about 118.6 m; the surface area shrank from ~140 ha to ~12.6 ha; and stored water volume dropped from ~91 million m³ to ~5.9 million m³ (≈6.4% of pre-event volume).
Response and recovery mobilized large numbers of local and outside firefighters, military units, and volunteers—nicknamed the “shovel superheroes”—who arrived by train to help with muck-out and sanitation. Government agencies began emergency river training, temporary levees, deep channels to divert flow, large-scale dredging plans through 2026, and a staged rebuilding of the destroyed bridge (temporary culvert road in mid-October 2025; steel temporary bridge by January 2026; one-way span by late 2026; full two-way completion in 2027). Prosecutors have opened an investigation into warnings, evacuations, and decision-making of the event.
For more photos of and information on this barrier lake, check out this website or this thread.
This disaster seems to have been impossible to prevent. There was too little time, and the lake was in a very remote location. The best course of action was to evacuate the town.
It was heartwarming to see thousands of people visit Guangfu and shovel mud out of homes. I wish I had more time to do the same. They still need help down there.
Check out our full record of Typhoon Ragasa here.
Typhoon Fung-Wong (2025) 紀念鳳凰颱風
Typhoon Fung-Wong was the 13th typhoon of the 2025 Pacific Typhoon Season. It made landfall in the Philippines and then weakened to a Tropical Storm before making landfall in Taiwan. This Typhoon brought massive destruction to the Philippines, and some rain and days off from work and school in Taiwan. In this blog, we will share some memories of this storm and its impact on Taiwan.
Basic Summary of the Typhoon 鳳凰颱風大概的狀況
Typhoon Fung-Wong became a depression on November 3rd, 2025, and was upgraded to a tropical storm on November 6th. On November 7th, it strengthened into a Typhoon. The Typhoon had maximum winds of 215 km/h, making it a solid Category 4. The Typhoon Landed in east-central Luzon Island of the Philippines, only a week after Typhoon Kalmegi, causing flooding, power outages, displacement of over 1 million people, over 27 dead, and over 130 injured.
Check out our full blog post on Fung Wong here.
Conclusion
The 2025 Typhoon season was memorable because of the Ma Tai An River barrier lake and flood, which killed so many people. However, other than that, this Typhoon season was pretty average and forgettable without much damage at all. Also, Taipei didn’t even get a Typhoon day off from work and school!
Safety Precautions During a Typhoon
- If you live on the first floor of a flood-prone area, move as many valuables and important objects to higher floors as possible.
- Secure loose outside objects
- Park your car/scooter on high ground
- Avoid going outside for your safety
- Stay out of the mountains
- Stay away from the ocean
- Have enough dry food and water ready for three days (72 hours) in case water and electricity are cut off.
If you follow the above rules, most Typhoons in Taiwan will not be dangerous. Also, most buildings in Taiwan are built with reinforced concrete that can withstand even the strongest winds, so stay indoors, and you will be fine.
Check out our guide to the 2024 Taiwan typhoon season here.
For more information about Taiwan, check out our full Taiwan guide here.
