Al Jazeera English, on Climate, 23 October 2026

Al Jazeera reports Typhoon Champi's path across Taiwan, the one death, the injuries and the evacuations, but never tells its reader that a warmer planet makes intense tropical cyclones and the rainfall they carry worse. It offers a forecast of up to 900mm of rain with no word on warming, and in its own voice attributes the season only to El Nino, a natural cycle.

6.0

Serious

out of 10

What we found

  1. Leaves out the climate link

    Serious

    “Champi could drop up to 900mm (35 inches) of rain between Thursday and Saturday”

    What the words do
    Reports an extreme rainfall forecast with no word that a warmer atmosphere loads the dice towards heavier downpours.
    What a reader comes away believing
    That rainfall of this size is simply what a big storm does, unconnected to a warming planet.
    What is actually the case
    Warming has made heavy rainfall more frequent and more severe, and the article carries no line to that effect anywhere.

    How we know

    • On the recordThat warming has made hot extremes, heavy rainfall, agricultural and ecological drought, fire weather and intense tropical cyclones more frequent or more severe.ipcc.ch (opens in a new tab)

    Show it in the article

    Written straight

    Champi could drop up to 900mm of rain between Thursday and Saturday, the CWA said. Human-caused warming is making intense tropical cyclones and the rainfall they carry more severe.

Every underline is part of a finding. Press one to see why.

Typhoon Champi hits Taiwan, killing one and injuring 350

Typhoon Champi has struck Taiwan, killing one person and injuring at least 350 others, as authorities warned of “destructive winds” and instructed people to stay indoors.

The storm swept past the island’s northeast on Friday, toppling trees, shutting shops and schools, cutting power to thousands of households, and forcing more than 4,300 people to evacuate from their homes.

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Champi is heading towards China and Japan, forcing the cancellation of hundreds of flights in the region.

“From tonight through tomorrow morning conditions will be very windy and stormy everywhere,” Central Weather Administration (CWA) forecaster Lin Ping-yu said in a briefing. “Please try to stay indoors.”

Champi was briefly a super typhoon with winds of nearly 300 kilometres per hour (186 miles per hour) but has since weakened. The US Joint Typhoon Warning Center reported maximum winds of 185km/h (115mph).

Worse is still expected to come on Saturday. , with the northeast hit hardest, the CWA said. More than 400mm fell in Yilan County on Friday.

CWA forecaster Lu Kuo-chen said the typhoon could slow near the island’s northeastern tip, prolonging its impact.

About 8,400 households in Japan’s Okinawa islands were without power on Friday afternoon, according to the Okinawa Electric Power Company. Champi is forecast to hover near Okinawa and then China’s eastern coast before turning northeast towards mainland Japan.

Champi is the latest storm in a Pacific season supercharged by El Nino.

The United Nations said on Wednesday that El Nino, a natural cycle that warms the tropical Pacific, is heading off the charts.

“The current El Nino event could be unprecedented in strength. Literally off the monitoring charts that we have used for the past four decades,” said Celeste Saulo, secretary-general of the World Meteorological Organization.

It is expected to peak in December, with its impact lasting into 2027 and beyond.

Read the original article on aljazeera.com (opens in a new tab)

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