2017 North Atlantic hurricane season
Hurricane Maria 2017
Maria struck Dominica at Category 5 strength before crossing Puerto Rico as a powerful Category 4 hurricane. The destruction of homes and essential infrastructure created a prolonged humanitarian crisis.
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173 mph
Sep 20, 2017 during the tropical stage
Full archive record, including non-tropical stages if present
Along the recorded center positions
STORM HISTORY
Rapid intensification at Dominica
Maria developed east of the Lesser Antilles on September 16. Rapid intensification on September 18 brought it to Category 5 strength just before the Dominica landfall. The island suffered catastrophic damage to housing, infrastructure and vegetation.
After briefly weakening over Dominica, Maria strengthened again. Archived sustained winds reached 150 knots at the start of September 20, and pressure fell to 908 millibars three hours later. An eyewall replacement cycle reduced its winds before the next landfall.
Puerto Rico and the prolonged aftermath
Maria crossed Puerto Rico on September 20 at Category 4 strength. Flooding and infrastructure damage affected much of the population, while the collapse of the electrical network left communities without power for months. Relief efforts were complicated by shortages and damage across an island already affected by Irma two weeks earlier.
The hurricane regained strength after leaving Puerto Rico, then moved north of the Bahamas and slowly paralleled the United States East Coast. It eventually turned east into the Atlantic, became extratropical on September 30 and dissipated by October 2.
IMPACT
Reported impact
| Deaths | 4,645 |
|---|---|
| Areas affected | Dominica, Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, United States |
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 | Not fully reported |
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
Maria in brief
What was Hurricane Maria's highest wind speed?
173 mph, the highest one-minute sustained wind in its tropical stage, recorded on Sep 20, 2017, 12:00 AM UTC.
What category was Hurricane Maria?
Category 5 at its peak on the Saffir–Simpson one-minute wind scale, first reaching Category 5 on Sep 19, 2017, 12:00 AM UTC. Other agencies classify storms differently.
What was Hurricane Maria's lowest pressure?
908 mb, the minimum central pressure recorded during its tropical stage, on Sep 20, 2017, 03:00 AM UTC.
When did Hurricane Maria occur?
The archived track runs from Sep 16, 2017, 12:00 PM UTC to Oct 2, 2017, 12:00 PM UTC, with the tropical stage from Sep 16, 2017, 12:00 PM UTC to Sep 30, 2017, 03:00 PM UTC.
Where did Hurricane Maria form?
In the North Atlantic basin, in the 2017 season. Its first archived position is 12.2°N, 49.7°W on Sep 16, 2017, 12:00 PM UTC.
Did Hurricane Maria make landfall?
The archive places its center over land at 1 recorded position; the strongest is 155 mph on Sep 20, 2017, 10:15 AM UTC. Positions are six-hourly, so this is not a landfall chronology.
How many people died in Hurricane Maria?
4,645 deaths are recorded by Wikidata.
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