Hurricane Dean evolved into one of two storms in the 2007 Atlantic hurricane season to make landfall as a Category 5 hurricane.

Dean was the seventh most intense Atlantic hurricane ever recorded, tied with Camille and Mitch, and the third most intense Atlantic hurricane ever at landfall.

Its winds, rains and storm surge were responsible for at least 45 deaths across ten countries and caused around US$1.66 billion in damage.

The storm was designated Tropical Depression Four on August 13, born more than 1,500 mi (2,400 km) east of the Lesser Antilles in a vigorous tropical wave heading west from Africa.

In the Caribbean Sea, the storm rapidly intensified to a Category 5 hurricane, then brushed the southern coast of Jamaica on August 19.

It crossed the Yucatán Peninsula and emerged, weakened, into the Bay of Campeche, then briefly restrengthened in the warm waters of the bay before making a second landfall in Veracruz.