The list of Category 5 Atlantic hurricanes encompasses 35 tropical cyclones that reached Category 5 intensity on the Saffir–Simpson Hurricane Scale within the Atlantic Ocean (north of the equator), the Caribbean Sea and Gulf of Mexico. They are the most catastrophic hurricanes that can form on planet Earth. They are relatively rare in the Atlantic Ocean, and generally occur only about once every three years on average in the Atlantic basin. In general, Category 5s form in clusters in single years. Landfalls by storms at Category 5 strength are rare due to the generally northeastward path of tropical cyclones in the Northern Hemisphere's mid-latitudes. This is caused by the westerlies, which recurve strong hurricanes towards colder waters in the open Atlantic Ocean. However, the easterly large-scale surface winds in the tropics may steer strong hurricanes in the Caribbean Sea towards land areas.
Only six times—in the 1932, 1933, 1960, 1961, 2005 and 2007 hurricane seasons—have multiple Category 5 hurricanes formed. Only in 2005 have more than two Category 5 storms formed, and only in 2007 has more than one made landfall at Category 5 strength.
Read more about List Of Category 5 Atlantic Hurricanes: Statistics, Category 5 Atlantic Hurricanes, Climatology, Landfalls
Famous quotes containing the words list of, list, category and/or atlantic:
“Shea—they call him Scholar Jack—
Went down the list of the dead.
Officers, seamen, gunners, marines,
The crews of the gig and yawl,
The bearded man and the lad in his teens,
Carpenters, coal-passers—all.”
—Joseph I. C. Clarke (1846–1925)
“We saw the machinery where murderers are now executed. Seven have been executed. The plan is better than the old one. It is quietly done. Only a few, at the most about thirty or forty, can witness [an execution]. It excites nobody outside of the list permitted to attend. I think the time for capital punishment has passed. I would abolish it. But while it lasts this is the best mode.”
—Rutherford Birchard Hayes (1822–1893)
“I see no reason for calling my work poetry except that there is no other category in which to put it.”
—Marianne Moore (1887–1972)
“She had exactly the German way: whatever was in her mind to be delivered, whether a mere remark, or a sermon, or a cyclopedia, or the history of a war, she would get it into a single sentence or die. Whenever the literary German dives into a sentence, that is the last you are going to see of him till he emerges on the other side of the Atlantic with his verb in his mouth.”
—Mark Twain [Samuel Langhorne Clemens] (1835–1910)