Hurricane Maria, now Category 5 storm, hits Dominica head on

The title says it all: Hurricane Maria is now a Category 5 storm. It made its first landfall on the small island of Dominica at 9:15pm local time.

At that time, the estimated sustained wind speeds was 160mph.

This is only the second time on record that a Hurricane Season has featured two landfalling Category 5 storms. In 2007, Hurricane Dean and Hurricane Felix both made landfall as CAtegroy 5 storms. Both hit Latin America.

2007 Hurricane Season tracks // Courtesy: NOAA

Maria will likely cause a similar levels of destruction as Hurricane Irma brought to Barbuda just a few weeks ago. People are already being rescued from destroyed homes.

The forecast track takes it to the northeast and toward Puerto Rico in the coming days. Likely as a Major Hurricane. Possibly as a Category 5. It would be the second Major Hurricane the island has ben hit by this month, having just dealt with Irma.

9/18/17 8pm Hurricane Maria Track


Author of the article:


Nick Lilja

Nick is former television meteorologist with stints in Amarillo and Hattiesburg. During his time in Hattiesburg, he was also an adjunct professor at the University of Southern Mississippi. He is a graduate of both Oregon State and Syracuse University that now calls Houston home. Now that he is retired from TV, he maintains this blog in his spare time.