Weather Underground Category 6

Thousands of people across the far-flung northern Leeward Islands battened down for the worst on Tuesday evening as Hurricane Irma approached. Irma surged in strength on Tuesday to become the strongest Atlantic hurricane ever recorded north of the Caribbean and east of the Gulf of Mexico. As of 2 pm EDT Tuesday, Irma’s top sustained winds were an incredible 185 mph. The only hurricane anywhere in the Atlantic ever known to have stronger winds was Allen (1980), at 190 mph. Allen weakened to Category 3 before striking the Texas/Mexico border. MORE