Hurricane Dorian, the most powerful Atlantic hurricane on record outside the tropics, made landfall in the Bahamas at Category 5 intensity.
Hurricane Dorian
Hurricane Dorian was an extremely powerful and catastrophic tropical cyclone, which became the most intense on record to strike the Bahamas. It is tied with the 1935 Labor Day hurricane for the strongest landfall in the Atlantic basin in terms of maximum sustained winds. It is regarded as the worst natural disaster in The Bahamas' recorded history. With winds peaking at 185 mph (295 km/h), it was also one of the most powerful hurricanes recorded in the Atlantic Ocean in terms of 1-minute sustained winds, and the strongest since Wilma in 2005. Dorian was the fourth named storm, second hurricane, the first major hurricane, and the first Category 5 hurricane of the 2019 Atlantic hurricane season. Dorian struck the Abaco Islands on September 1 with maximum sustained winds of 185 mph (295 km/h), tying with the 1935 Labor Day hurricane for the highest wind speeds of an Atlantic hurricane ever recorded at landfall. Dorian went on to strike Grand Bahama at similar intensity, stalling just north of the territory with unrelenting winds for at least 24 hours. The resultant damage to these islands was catastrophic; most structures were flattened or swept to sea, and at least 70,000 people were left homeless. After it ravaged through The Bahamas, Dorian proceeded along the coasts of the Southeastern United States and Atlantic Canada, leaving behind considerable damage and economic losses in those regions.
Atlantic hurricane
An Atlantic hurricane is a type of tropical cyclone that forms in the Atlantic Ocean primarily between June and November. The terms "hurricane", "typhoon", and "tropical cyclone" can be used interchangeably to describe this weather phenomenon. These storms are continuously rotating around a low pressure center, which causes stormy weather across a large area, which is not limited to just the eye of the storm. They are organized systems of clouds and thunderstorms that originate over tropical or subtropical waters and have closed low-level circulation, and should not be confused with tornadoes, which are another type of cyclone. In the North Atlantic and the Eastern Pacific, the term hurricane is used, whereas typhoon is used in the Western Pacific near Asia. The more general term cyclone is used in the rest of the ocean basins, namely the South Pacific and Indian Ocean.