2007 North Atlantic hurricane season
Hurricane Dean 2007
Dean crossed the Caribbean before striking Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula at Category 5 strength. Its route brought crop losses to Caribbean islands and two hurricane landfalls to Mexico.
Drag to pan. Pinch or Ctrl/⌘ + scroll to zoom. Keyboard: plus or minus to zoom, arrow keys to pan, and 0 to show the full track.
173 mph
Aug 21, 2007 during the tropical stage
Full archive record, including non-tropical stages if present
Along the recorded center positions
STORM HISTORY
Across the Caribbean
Dean formed in the eastern Atlantic on August 13 and moved west-northwest through the Saint Lucia Channel. It strengthened over the Caribbean and passed just south of Jamaica. Wind, waves and rain damaged agriculture along the route, including banana crops in Martinique and Jamaica.
Two landfalls in Mexico
Dean reached the Yucatan coast near Majahual on August 21 at its peak strength. The archive records sustained winds of 150 knots and a central pressure of 905 millibars. Although the landfall area was sparsely populated, the hurricane damaged coastal communities and tourist infrastructure.
The peninsula crossing disrupted Dean's core, but it emerged into the Bay of Campeche as a hurricane. It strengthened again before a second landfall near Tecolutla, Veracruz, on August 22. Mexico's mountain terrain then broke down the circulation.
A long agricultural recovery
Recovery continued well beyond the passage of the storm. Roads and houses required repairs, while damaged fields had to be replanted. Jamaica's banana production took more than a year to regain its earlier level, and Mexico's damaged cruise infrastructure took almost a year to rebuild.
US impacts by state
Selected NOAA Storm Events records for hurricane, tropical storm and storm surge events during this storm's archived track. Deaths and injuries include reported direct and indirect impacts. These records are incomplete, particularly for indirect deaths, and are not storm-wide totals. Other hazards and impacts outside the US are excluded.
| State or territory | Deaths | Injuries | Property damage (event-year USD) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Puerto Rico | 0 | 0 | $5,000.00 |
| Virgin Islands | 0 | 0 | $30,000.00 |
Property damage is reported in dollars of the event year, without inflation adjustment; crop damage is excluded. A missing value is not zero. These figures do not replace the storm-wide estimates elsewhere on this page.
Source: NOAA NCEI Storm Events Database.
Further reading
NOAA IBTrACS v04r01 historical track archive
Official report (PDF) — National Hurricane Center, Tropical Cyclone Report.
QUICK ANSWERS
Dean in brief
What was Hurricane Dean's highest wind speed?
173 mph, the highest one-minute sustained wind in its tropical stage, recorded on Aug 21, 2007, 06:00 AM UTC.
What category was Hurricane Dean?
Category 5 at its peak on the Saffir–Simpson one-minute wind scale, first reaching Category 5 on Aug 18, 2007, 06:00 AM UTC. Other agencies classify storms differently.
What was Hurricane Dean's lowest pressure?
905 mb, the minimum central pressure recorded during its tropical stage, on Aug 21, 2007, 08:30 AM UTC.
When did Hurricane Dean occur?
The archived track runs from Aug 13, 2007, 06:00 AM UTC to Aug 23, 2007, 12:00 AM UTC, with the tropical stage from Aug 13, 2007, 06:00 AM UTC to Aug 23, 2007, 12:00 AM UTC.
Where did Hurricane Dean form?
In the North Atlantic basin, in the 2007 season. Its first archived position is 12.2°N, 28.9°W on Aug 13, 2007, 06:00 AM UTC.
Did Hurricane Dean make landfall?
The archive places its center over land at 2 recorded positions; the strongest is 173 mph on Aug 21, 2007, 08:30 AM UTC. Positions are six-hourly, so this is not a landfall chronology.
METHODOLOGY
Data sources and limitations
The map and summary are generated from NOAA's IBTrACS v04r01 archive. Wind and category use US-agency records; minimum pressure is calculated during the tropical stage, with the archive's pressure source retained. Category 5 refers to the Saffir–Simpson one-minute wind scale; local agencies may use different classifications. Coastlines use Natural Earth's 1:10m land data.
Track distance adds great-circle distances between consecutive observations, excluding gaps over 12 hours. This track has no gaps over 12 hours. The line shows the storm's center, not its size, rainfall or flood extent. Converted wind speeds are rounded to the nearest whole unit.
Archive retrieved
NOAA IBTrACS archive and Field documentation
Sources & methodology