From Camille to Katrina, the Category 5 storms that shaped history
Only four per cent of all hurricanes in the Atlantic have made it to scale-topping strength
Hurricanes are some of nature’s largest and most ferocious storms. Only a small handful of these sprawling systems ever reach Category 5 intensity.
Many of these scale-topping hurricanes remained out to sea with minimal effects to land. But some of them crashed ashore near peak intensity, wreaking havoc on communities that took generations to repair.
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Meteorologists recorded 963 hurricanes in the Atlantic Ocean between 1851 and 2024. Around 35 per cent of those hurricanes grew into major Category 3 storms or stronger.
And, as of September 2025, only 43 storms have achieved scale-topping Category 5 intensity. Here’s a look at some of the storms that changed the course of history in the areas they struck.
1928: Okeechobee Hurricane
Hurricanes weren’t routinely named until the 1950s—before then, they received nicknames based on where they made landfall. The Okeechobee Hurricane of 1928 swirled into southern Florida at peak intensity on Sept. 16, 1928, causing significant damage throughout the region.
The storm’s powerful winds caused a major storm surge on the southern shores of Lake Okeechobee, a shove of water that overwhelmed the region’s flimsy mud dikes. Thousands of people died in the resulting floods, many of whom were Black migrant farm workers.
1935: Labor Day Hurricane
The strongest hurricane to ever strike the United States passed over the Florida Keys on Sept. 2, 1935.
Known as the Labor Day Hurricane, the system made landfall with a minimum pressure of 892 mb and estimated maximum winds of nearly 300 km/h. The hurricane’s winds and flooding claimed hundreds of lives in the region.
1961: Hurricane Hattie
Hurricane Hattie was a classic late-season storm that formed in the southern Caribbean Sea in late October 1961. The system slowly moved north, then rapidly intensified as it hooked west toward land.
Hattie reached peak intensity just before making landfall in Belize—then called British Honduras—reportedly destroying as much as 75 per cent of Belize City. The hurricane caused so much damage that officials built a new capital city, Belmopan, 50 kilometres inland from the coast.
1969: Hurricane Camille
Hurricane Camille charged through the Gulf of Mexico as one of the strongest storms on record. Swirling into the Mississippi coast with winds of almost 280 km/h, Camille’s sheer power and historic storm surge devastated the region.
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Crews measured a maximum storm surge of nearly 7.5 metres above ground level in Pass Christian, Mississippi. The onslaught of water on top of the extreme winds destroyed thousands of buildings, killing more than 250 people.
1980: Hurricane Allen
A long-track hurricane that formed relatively early in the season, Allen spent the first half of August traversing the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico on its way to landfall in southern Texas.
Faced with favourable conditions and extremely warm sea surface temperatures, Allen gradually intensified into the strongest hurricane ever observed in the Atlantic basin. The storm’s winds peaked at about 305 km/h as its eye passed just off the coast of Cancun, Mexico.
1992: Hurricane Andrew
The third of only four Category 5 hurricanes on record to strike the contiguous United States, southern Florida took the full brunt of Hurricane Andrew in late-August 1992.
Andrew made landfall south of Miami with winds of almost 270 km/h, destroying tens of thousands of homes and businesses throughout the region. The storm crossed into the Gulf of Mexico and made another landfall in Louisiana as a large Category 3 hurricane.
2005: Hurricane Katrina
Katrina stands as the most infamous storm to form during the second-most active hurricane season on record. This unusually large hurricane grew into a scale-topping Category 5 in the centre of the Gulf of Mexico as it raced north toward Mississippi and Louisiana.
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The system’s sheer size and powerful winds pushed an immense storm surge into the coast. Numerous levee failures in New Orleans inundated much of the city with floodwaters that ultimately killed more than 1,400 people.
2018: Hurricane Michael
Rapid intensification is a common theme among high-end hurricanes. Michael exemplified the trend when it struck the Florida Panhandle as a Category 5 on Oct. 10, 2018.
The storm was a major Category 3 hurricane when folks went to bed on Tuesday, Oct. 9. Trekking over a patch of very warm waters, Michael continued to intensify all the way until its eye crossed the coastline early the following afternoon. Communities along the path of the hurricane suffered more than $25 billion in damage.
2024: Hurricane Beryl
Most powerful hurricanes don’t occur until the peak of the season between late August and late September. Some systems defy the odds.
Hurricane Beryl was an exceptionally early storm that formed from a tropical wave off the coast of Africa in late-June 2024. Unusually warm waters and very favourable environmental conditions allowed Beryl to flourish, rapidly intensifying into the earliest Category 5 storm ever observed in the Atlantic.
The system reached its peak strength on July 2, 2024—a full week and a half earlier than the previous recordholder, 2005’s Hurricane Emily.
Header image created using graphics and imagery from NOAA and Canva.