Category 5 hurricanes have some of the strongest winds on Earth, blinding rainfall, stories of storm surge and numerous tornadoes. They're often the most damaging storms in decades in the countries where they strike.

Near-perfect conditions void of shearing winds, dry air, sinking air and chilly water must be in place for these behemoths of weather to even exist.

Through July 27, there have been four Category 5s around the globe in 2026. Recently, Hurricane Genevieve briefly had winds of 160 mph. Before that, Tropical Cyclone Horacio in the Indian Ocean was the first to reach Cat. 5 status this year back in February. Typhoons Bavi and Sinlaku became Category 5s, and both struck the Northern Mariana Islands at at least Category 4 intensity.

What are Category 5 hurricanes?

Simply put, they are tropical systems with sustained winds of at least 157 mph. Catastrophic wind damage is expected where these winds meet communities. Power outages will be widespread and life likely won't be the same for months to years after the storm passes.

Category 5 is the highest category on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale (SSHWS). The scale does not have an upper limit on these wind speeds, but several storms have seen winds of 185+ mph, and one has seen sustained winds of 215 mph.

This magnitude of sustained winds is rarely observed over land due to friction and observation station failure.

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Examples of Category 5 hurricanes

Atlantic basin

Three Category 5 hurricanes developed in the 2025 Atlantic hurricane season – Melissa, Humberto and Erin – something that hadn't happened in 20 years. Hurricane Melissa killed 93 people and caused $12.2 billion in damage across Jamaica.

Many recent seasons have had one or two Category 5s, but most years have none.

The short list of such hurricanes is below.

These storms can impact large cities: Hurricane Andrew made landfall near Miami in 1992 with winds of 165 mph. The storm left 160,000 residents of Miami-Dade County homeless. It was the most expensive natural disaster to hit the United States until Katrina hit the northern Gulf Coast 13 years later.

Hurricanes of this magnitude can develop at almost any time during hurricane season if conditions are right.

Hurricane Beryl was the earliest Category 5 on record (July 1-2) in 2024. The Cuba hurricane of 1932 was the record latest-in-season Category 5 and the only one in November (Nov. 5-8).

(MORE: A history of Category 5 hurricanes in the Atlantic)

September is when Category 5 hurricanes have occurred most often, by far. But they have also happened over a half dozen times each in August and October.

East Pacific basin

Several big names come to mind when talking about Pacific Cat. 5s: Hurricanes Otis and Patricia.

Hurricane Otis was largely a surprise Category 5 that exploded in intensity near Acapulco, Mexico, in 2023. The storm is the costliest hurricane in both Mexican history and east Pacific history.

An overwhelming majority of buildings in the city were damaged by extreme wind gusts or storm surge. Tens of thousands of homes were completely destroyed.

Hurricane Patricia from 2015 reached the top of some global intensity lists because its sustained wind speeds reached 215 mph. Thankfully, some extreme weakening allowed Patricia to come ashore in southwest Mexico as a relatively weak Category 4 with considerably less damage than Otis.

West Pacific

In the western Pacific, hurricanes are called typhoons, and at this magnitude are led by the word "super." Super typhoons are simply hurricanes in the western Pacific with winds of at least 150 mph.

Super typhoons are much more common than Category 5 hurricanes in the Atlantic. This partially due to the lower threshold between super typhoons and Category 5s. Secondly, and no less importantly, the West Pacific is also much larger, and the area where such storms can form in favorable conditions is much larger.

The list of mega storms is much longer, but one or two stick out.

Typhoon Haiyan from 2013 had sustained winds of 190 mph when it struck the eastern Philippines with catastrophic impact.

Typhoon Tip tops numerous record books around the globe for its enormous size and its low pressure, but it also had winds of 190 mph. Winds decreased substantially before reaching mainland Japan, but heavy rain flooded parts of the country.

Jonathan Belles has been a digital meteorologist for weather.com for 10 years. His favorite weather is tropical weather, but he also enjoys covering high-impact weather and news stories and winter storms. He's a two-time graduate of Florida State University and a proud graduate of St. Petersburg College.