Hurricane Tracker Shows Typhoon Dujuan Death Toll Reaches 10 in Japan
Severe weather events including record rainfall deficits, flash flooding, damaging hail, and a deadly typhoon are causing widespread agricultural losses and human impacts across multiple continents, as tracked by hurricane tracker updates on global storm and drought patterns.
Record Drought Devastates Hungarian Agriculture
Most farmers will end this year with a loss, said János Molnár, State Secretary for Agricultural Economics, during a press conference following a meeting of the harvest coordination committee. He added that the lack of rainfall has had a very negative impact on agriculture, and the resulting situation has presented everyone with significant challenges. This year’s rainfall deficit has even exceeded that of the extremely dry year of 2022. Based on data from the water management authority, most of the country is missing roughly 600 millimeters of rainfall, which corresponds to the rainfall amount of a moderately good year. In other words, more than a year’s worth of rainfall is missing from the soil and water reserves, he emphasized. Tamás Petőházi, president of the National Association of Grain Growers (GOSZ), said 2026 was a difficult year for field crops, with yields falling short of forecasts. He indicated that they have been continuously preparing for drought periods since 2022. This year, the area planted with sunflowers exceeded that of corn, which would have been unthinkable in Hungary ten years ago. Sunflowers were planted on 780,000 hectares this year. It was necessary to increase the planted area because sunflowers are more resilient than corn, he explained. However, due to the drought, a poor harvest is expected this year: the average yield is projected to be 1.6 metric tons of sunflowers per hectare. The harvest has already begun earlier than in previous years and is currently more than 80 percent complete. This year, the area planted with corn has fallen by more than half compared to 2022. In Hungary, 589,000 hectares were planted with grain corn, but due to the drought, many fields were destroyed, hence the harvest is expected to come from only about 500,000 hectares. An average yield of 3 metric tons per hectare is projected. The average could be improved by yields from areas in Transdanubia, which are in a more favorable position and will be harvested later. Thus, a total of about 1.5 million metric tons of corn could be produced in Hungary, which falls short of domestic demand. Tamás Petőházi also noted that fall planting has begun. Fall rapeseed has been planted on 146,000 hectares. A 10–15 percent increase in the area planted with cereals is expected nationwide. [1]
Swiss Crops Suffer CHF59 Million in Summer Damage
The summer drought and hail storms caused CHF59.2 million in crop damage, according to agricultural insurer Hagel Schweiz. This is almost three times as much damage as last summer. The months of April to August were the driest and hottest since records began in 1901 and led to significant crop failures, said Hagel Schweiz. The insurance company expects 5,800 claims for the current year. The drought was responsible for 45% of the claims, while hail accounts for 48%. “This year’s drought clearly shows just how much agriculture is already suffering from the effects of climate change,” said Hagel Switzerland. Summer crops such as potatoes, maize, sugar beet and sunflowers were particularly hard hit. Due to the high compensation payments, Hagel Switzerland also expects a significantly negative operating result. [3]
Typhoon Dujuan Leaves 10 Dead in Japan
Landslides, major flooding and other damage in the Kanto region caused by Typhoon Dujuan earlier this week have left local residents struggling to deal with the aftermath — some for the second time in weeks after heavy rain caused flooding in August. At least 10 people have died in Chiba and Kanagawa prefectures after the typhoon ravaged the area from late Sunday through Tuesday morning, many in landslides that engulfed houses. One man was found dead after he became trapped in an inundated car. A levee at Lake Inba in northeastern Chiba Prefecture was breached in four places, causing houses and stores to be inundated. The water level at the lake reached a record 5.04 meters at one point on Tuesday morning, far higher than its maximum safe level of 4.25 m. Some 17,000 houses were still without electricity as of noon Thursday. About 560 houses have been flooded in the prefecture. In the city of Sakura, Kazuyoshi Sugo, who also experienced flooding due to heavy rain last month, found the ground floor of his home filled with muddy floodwater. “It was just after I was cleaning things up” from last month, said Sugo, 59, as he swept away water and mud that had collected in the entrance area. “There’s no point in dwelling on it.” At an izakaya (Japanese tavern), where floodwater had reached as high as waist level, three regular customers were helping to carry bottles of alcohol and food packages out of the building on Wednesday. “It could have been better if we had used sandbags to stop the water beforehand,” said one of the customers. Mud from a landslide fills a house's living room Wednesday in Miura, Kanagawa Prefecture, after Typhoon Dujuan caused heavy rain in the area. At Tani Fish Farm in the city of Narita, about 100,000 koi carp either died in muddy water or swam out of the premises during the floods. This, along with damage to machinery, caused losses of about ¥1 billion ($6.3 million), Kansai Television reported Wednesday. The facility is part of a recreational park that also houses a putter golf course, a fishing pond and a restaurant, all of which were inundated. “We can’t do anything until the floodwater recedes,” Kenji Tani, CEO of the fish farm, told the broadcaster. Typhoon Dujuan came closest to the Tokyo metropolitan area on Monday and caused heavy rain in the region during the Silver Week holidays. Train services were suspended and many events were cancelled. Kamogawa Seaworld, an aquarium in Chiba, and Ueno Zoo in Tokyo were among the many facilities that closed Monday due to the typhoon. According to a survey by private forecaster Weathernews, 60.8% of respondents in Kanto said they had to change their plans due to the storm. [4]
Flash Flood Warning Issued in New Mexico and Texas
The National Weather Service in Midland/Odessa has issued a Flash Flood Warning for Southwestern Eddy County in southeastern New Mexico and Northwestern Culberson County in southwestern Texas until 400 AM MDT /500 AM CDT/. At 108 AM MDT /208 AM CDT/, Doppler radar indicated thunderstorms producing heavy rain across the warned area. Mesonet observing stations indicate that between 1 and 1.5 inches of rain have fallen in the past 1 to 2 hours near Carlsbad Caverns National Pa. [2]
Broader Northern Hemisphere Agricultural Impacts
He said agricultural yields are declining not only in Hungary but across the entire Northern Hemisphere due to climate change. As a result, prices for agricultural products are rising on the global market as well, a trend further exacerbated by higher transportation and energy costs. [1] “This year’s drought clearly shows just how much agriculture is already suffering from the effects of climate change,” said Hagel Switzerland. [3]
Fire Weather Alert in California
Red Flag Warning for Modoc County Except for the Surprise Valley. Impacts include any fires that develop will likely spread rapidly. Affected area is in CAZ285 Fire weather zone 285. Wind southwest 12 to 20 mph with gusts of 30 to 35 mph. Humidity daytime humidities of 11 to 15 percent. [5]
What to watch next: Continued monitoring of agricultural losses from drought and hail in Hungary and Switzerland alongside repeated flooding risks in Japan's Kanto region after Typhoon Dujuan.
