page_title: Hurricane Allen
hierarchical_section_title: Hurricane Allen
caption_attribution_description: English: Hurricane Allen in the western Caribbean Sea on August 7, 1980 at 17:30 UTC.
context_page_description: Hurricane Allen was a rare and extremely powerful Cape Verde hurricane that struck the Caribbean, eastern and northern Mexico, and southern Texas in August 1980. The first named storm and first tropical cyclone of the 1980 Atlantic hurricane season, it was the fifth most intense Atlantic Hurricane on record in terms of barometric pressure, behind Hurricane Rita, the 1935 Labor Day hurricane, Hurricane Gilbert, and Hurricane Wilma. It was one of the few hurricanes to reach Category 5 status on the Saffir–Simpson Hurricane Scale on three occasions, and spent more time as a Category 5 than all but two other Atlantic hurricanes. Allen is the only hurricane in the recorded history of the Atlantic basin to achieve sustained winds of 190 mph, thus making it the strongest Atlantic hurricane by wind speed. Until Hurricane Patricia in 2015, these were also the highest sustained winds in the Western Hemisphere.
  Throughout its life, Allen moved through the deep tropics on a westerly to north-westerly course through the tropical Atlantic Ocean, Caribbean Sea, and Gulf of Mexico before making its final landfall near the United States–Mexico border.
context_section_description: Hurricane Allen was a rare and extremely powerful Cape Verde hurricane that struck the Caribbean, eastern and northern Mexico, and southern Texas in August 1980. The first named storm and first tropical cyclone of the 1980 Atlantic hurricane season, it was the fifth most intense Atlantic Hurricane on record in terms of barometric pressure, behind Hurricane Rita, the 1935 Labor Day hurricane, Hurricane Gilbert, and Hurricane Wilma. It was one of the few hurricanes to reach Category 5 status on the Saffir–Simpson Hurricane Scale on three occasions, and spent more time as a Category 5 than all but two other Atlantic hurricanes. Allen is the only hurricane in the recorded history of the Atlantic basin to achieve sustained winds of 190 mph (305 km/h), thus making it the strongest Atlantic hurricane by wind speed. Until Hurricane Patricia in 2015, these were also the highest sustained winds in the Western Hemisphere.
  Throughout its life, Allen moved through the deep tropics on a westerly to north-westerly course through the tropical Atlantic Ocean, Caribbean Sea, and Gulf of Mexico before making its final landfall near the United States–Mexico border. At peak strength, it passed near Haiti, causing hundreds of deaths and heavy damage. After crossing the Gulf of Mexico, Allen weakened as it struck the lower Texas coast, causing high winds, a significant storm surge, and heavy rainfall, which caused damage to southern Texas. Overall, Allen killed at least 269 people and left $2.57 billion in damages (1980 US dollars), mostly within the United States and Haiti. Because of its impact, the name Allen was retired from the six-year revolving list of Atlantic tropical cyclone names in 1981 and the name was replaced by Andrew. The name Andrew was subsequently retired after the 1995 season's Hurricane Andrew. The remnants of the storm precipitated the end of the heat wave of 1980 in places like Dallas/Fort Worth, Texas, which had recorded 69 days of 100 °F (38 °C) heat.
caption: Hurricane Allen at peak intensity in the Yucatán Channel on August 7
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