Hurricane Matthew

Hurricane Matthew

Category 5 major hurricane (SSHWS/NWS)
Hurricane Matthew at peak intensity to the north of Colombia on October 1
Formed	September 28, 2016
Dissipated	October 10, 2016
(Extratropical after October 9)
Highest winds	1-minute sustained: 160 mph (260 km/h)
Lowest pressure	934 mbar (hPa); 27.58 inHg
Fatalities	605 – 1,659+ total
Damage	≥ $10.58 billion (2016 USD) (Preliminary estimate)
Areas affected	Lesser Antilles, Leeward Antilles, Venezuela, Colombia, Jamaica, Hispaniola, Cuba, Lucayan Archipelago, Southeastern United States, Eastern Canada
Part of the 2016 Atlantic hurricane season

Hurricane Matthew was an extremely destructive and long-lived tropical cyclone which became the first Category 5 Atlantic hurricane since Hurricane Felix in 2007. The thirteenth named storm, fifth hurricane and second major hurricane of the active 2016 Atlantic hurricane season, Matthew wrought widespread destruction and catastrophic loss of life during its journey across the Western Atlantic, including parts of Haiti, Cuba, Dominican Republic and Lucayan Archipelago, the southeastern United States, and the Canadian Maritimes. Over 1,600 estimated deaths have been attributed to the storm, including 546 to 1,600 in Haiti, 1 in Colombia, 4 in the Dominican Republic, 4 in Cuba, 1 in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, and 49 in the United States, making it the deadliest Atlantic hurricane since Hurricane Stan in 2005, which killed more than 1,600 in Central America and Mexico. With the storm causing damages estimated in excess of $10.5 billion (USD), it was also the costliest Atlantic hurricane since Hurricane Sandy in 2012, as well as the tenth costliest Atlantic hurricane in history.

Originating from a tropical wave that emerged off Africa on September 22, Matthew developed into a tropical storm 35 miles (56 km) southeast of St. Lucia on September 28, after which it underwent explosive intensification as it tracked across the Caribbean Sea. Matthew became a hurricane 190 miles (310 km) northeast of Curaçao on September 29, and ultimately reached Category 5 intensity the following day at just 13.3°N latitude – the lowest latitude ever recorded for a storm of this intensity in the Atlantic Basin. Matthew weakened slightly while making a northward turn toward the Greater Antilles, remaining a strong Category 4 hurricane as it made its first landfall over Haiti's Tiburon Peninsula early on October 4. The cyclone then passed through the Gulf of Gonâve and Windward Passage, retaining its Category 4 status before making a second landfall over Guantánamo Province, Cuba later that evening. Land interaction helped weaken the storm to Category 3, though Matthew eventually reattained Category 4 intensity as it moved away from Cuba and toward the Bahamas. The eye of the storm passed between Andros Island and New Providence Island, approaching to within 25 miles (40 km) of Nassau on October 6. Matthew made its third landfall over Grand Bahama 15 miles (24 km) west-northwest of Freeport as a Category 4 hurricane later that day. The storm then paralleled the coast of the southeastern United States over the next 36 hours, gradually weakening while remaining just offshore before making its fourth and final landfall over the Cape Romain National Wildlife Refuge 55 miles (89 km) south-southwest of Myrtle Beach, South Carolina as a Category 1 hurricane on the morning of October 8. Matthew reemerged into the Atlantic shortly afterward, briefly retaining its hurricane status before completing its transition into an extratropical cyclone as it turned away from Cape Hatteras, North Carolina on October 9.