Satellite Analysis of Typhoon Soudelor’s Rainfall

Typhoon Soudelor dropped over two feet of rainfall when it made landfall in China in early August, and soaked Taiwan. NASA estimated that rainfall using data from the Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) mission.
Soudelor formed in the middle of the Pacific Ocean well east of Guam on July 20, 2015. Soudelor became more powerful with peak intensity of about 155 knots (178 mph) reached on August 3, 2015 when the super typhoon was well east of Taiwan over the open waters of the Pacific Ocean.

Soudelor’s winds died down a little but rebounded to with over 100 knots (115 mph) before hitting Taiwan . Although Soudelor was still a powerful typhoon when it hit land most deaths and destruction were caused by flooding and mudslides from heavy rainfall not from strong winds. The rugged terrain over typhoon amplified rainfall totals with over 1320 mm (52 inches) being reported in Taiwan.

This rainfall analysis was generated using NASA’s Integrated Multi-satellite Retrievals for GPM (IMERG) data. It shows estimated total rainfall for the Taiwan and China area.

This analysis covers the period from August 2-9, 2015 with rainfall from typhoon Soudelor starting to show up within the area of this analysis after August 3, 2015.