Strongest Atlantic Storms of 2025 by Peak Wind Speed

What this chart shows
All 13 named storms of the 2025 Atlantic hurricane season, ranked by the highest maximum sustained wind each one reached while it was a tropical or subtropical cyclone. Values are in knots; 165 knots is about 190 mph.

How the data is collected
The values come from HURDAT2, the National Hurricane Center's official best-track database, in the file dated 27 February 2026 that covers the Atlantic from 1851 to 2025. NHC builds each best track after the season, in a post-storm analysis that uses all available observations, including some that were not available in real time. For every storm the chart takes the largest wind value recorded at any best-track time while the system had tropical depression, tropical storm, hurricane or subtropical status.

Background
In HURDAT2 the maximum sustained wind is the highest one-minute average wind at a height of 10 metres, given to the nearest 5 knots. On the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale, category 5 starts at 137 knots, and three 2025 storms reached it: Melissa, Erin and Humberto. NHC's report on Melissa says its estimated peak of 165 knots at 1200 UTC on 28 October made it one of the strongest hurricanes on record in the Atlantic basin.

Limits
Peak wind is an estimate built from aircraft, satellite and surface data, and NHC rounds it to 5 knots, so storms shown with the same value may not have been exactly equal. The figure is the strongest point in a storm's life and says nothing about the winds that reached land. Wind speed also leaves out other hazards: NHC's own guide to the scale notes that hurricanes of all categories can produce deadly storm surge, rain-induced floods and tornadoes.