After moving over the Taiwan Strait, Sarah made its final landfall in Eastern China on September 13 before dissipating the following day.

While the typhoon meandered near the Philippines, it brought several days of heavy rain to much of Luzon, triggering extensive flash flooding.

Striking Taiwan as a strong typhoon, Sarah caused widespread wind damage that left approximately 840,000 residents without power.

Initially, a tropical upper tropospheric trough (TUTT) to the northwest inhibited convective development; however, "complex interactions", according to Lt. Cdr.

Due to the improved environment, the Joint Typhoon Warning Center (JTWC) issued two Tropical Cyclone Formation Alerts on the system on September 5.

[1] Initially, the depression tracked west-southwestwards and gradually intensified; however, after being upgraded to Tropical Storm Sarah late on September 6, the system turned northwestward and accelerated towards Okinawa.

Tracking generally towards the north-northwest, Sarah entered a favorable region for development and underwent a period of explosive intensification on September 11.

[1] The JMA assessed Sarah to have been somewhat weaker, estimating peak ten-minute sustained winds of 150 km/h (93 mph) along with a barometric pressure of 950 mbar (hPa; 28.05 inHg).

[3] Forecasters at the JTWC initially projected the storm to track north of Taiwan on September 12 and merge with an approaching frontal system.

Unexpectedly, the typhoon executed a counterclockwise loop and briefly moved offshore before making a second landfall 12 hours later along the northeastern coast of Taiwan as a tropical storm.

Sarah failed to reorganize as it moved over the Taiwan Strait and later made its final landfall in Zhejiang, China as a minimal tropical storm on September 13.

[1] Although the storm did not make landfall in the Philippines, its close proximity brought several days of heavy rain to Luzon, leading to widespread flash floods and mudslides.

In the province of Ilocos Sur, ten people were killed in a single town after flood waters swept away many homes overnight.

[17] Excessive rainfall triggered widespread flash flooding that inundated agricultural areas and paralyzed transportation as roads and bridges were washed away.

[15] In Hualien City, flood waters reached a depth of 1.2 m (3.9 ft) and several homes were destroyed, leaving roughly 100 people homeless.

[20] After two days of search and rescue efforts, officials deemed their chance of survival to be very slim and the four missing crew members were declared dead on September 14.