Hurricane Dorian intensified into a Category 5 on Sunday morning, becoming the fifth Atlantic hurricane in the past four years to reach this highest level on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale.
Dorian's intensification into a Category 5 marked the fourth year in a row the Atlantic basin has had at least one hurricane reach that strength. That's the most consecutive years on record with at least one Category 5 in the Atlantic, topping a three-year stretch from 2003 to 2005.
Category 5 hurricanes are rare and have maximum sustained winds 157 mph or greater. They can unleash devastating winds and catastrophic storm surge when they strike land.
Winds in Dorian reached 185 mph at 12:40 p.m. EDT on Sunday, according to the National Hurricane Center. That puts Dorian in a tie for the second-highest sustained wind speed among all Atlantic hurricanes.
Including Dorian, there have been 35 Category 5 hurricanes in the Atlantic Basin, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The lion's share of them occurred during the peak of the hurricane season in August and September.
Historical records in the Atlantic Basin date back to 1851, but the first Category 5 hurricane wasn't recorded until 1924. It's possible there were Category 5 hurricanes before 1924, but some probably missed islands and coastlines – and ships probably avoided others – so data was sparse.
Most Category 5 Atlantic hurricanes have been confined to the lower latitudes, but a few developed in the Gulf of Mexico and near the Bahamas.
Labor Day Hurricane (1935), Hurricane Camille (1969), Hurricane Andrew (1992) and Hurricane Michael (2018) are the only Category 5 hurricanes to make a recorded landfall in the continental United States.
In 2016, Hurricane Matthew became the first Category 5 hurricane in the Atlantic since Hurricane Felix in 2007.
September 2017 marked the first time two hurricanes had attained Category 5 strength (Irma and Maria) in the same season since 2007 (Dean and Felix).
The most Category 5 hurricanes in one Atlantic season occurred in 2005, when four of them reached that intensity, including Emily, Katrina, Rita and Wilma.
The decade that recorded the greatest number of Category 5 hurricanes was 2000-09, with eight.