The continental U.S. has only been hit with Category 5 winds three times in modern history: the Unnamed Labor Day Storm of September 1935, Hurricane Camille of August 1969 and Hurricane Andrew of August 1992. Other storms have hit Category 5 status, but only those three were Category 5 when making landfall in the U.S.

Only eleven other storms have made landfall in the Atlantic Basin as a Category 5 hurricane (through 2009):

Name	Year	Location
Cuba	1924	Northwest Cuba
Okeechobee	1928	Puerto Rico
Bahamas	1932	Abaco Islands
Fort Lauderdale	1947	Abaco Islands
Janet	1955	Mexico
Edith	1971	Honduras
Anita	1977	Mexico
David	1979	Hispaniola
Gilbert	1988	Mexico
Dean	2007	Yucatán Penninsula
Felix	2007	Honduras/Nicaraugua

The complete list of all Atlantic Basin Category 5 hurricanes (32 through 2009):

Name	Year	Dates
Cuba	1924	October 19th
Okeechobee	1928	September 13th-14th
Bahamas	1932	September 5th-6th
Labor Day	1935	September 3rd
New England	1938	September 19th-20th
Fort Lauderdale	1947	September 16th-17th
Dog	1950	September 5th-7th
Easy	1951	September 7th-8th
Janet	1955	September 27th-28th
Cleo	1958	August 16th
Donna	1960	September 4th
Ethel	1960	September 15th
Carla	1961	September 11th
Hattie	1961	October 30th-31st
Beulah	1967	September 20th
Camille	1969	August 17th-18th
Edith	1971	September 9th
Anita	1977	September 2nd
David	1979	August 30th-31st
Allen	1980	August 5th-9th
Gilbert	1988	September 13th-14th
Hugo	1989	September 15th
Andrew	1992	August 23rd
Mitch	1998	October 26th-28th
Isabel	2003	September 11th-14th
Ivan	2004	September 9th-14th
Emily	2005	July 17th
Katrina	2005	August 28th-29th
Rita	2005	September 21st-22nd
Wilma	2005	October 19th
Dean	2007	August 20th-21st
Felix	2007	September 3rd-4th

For those of you who like to crunch numbers and look for trends:

• First and foremost, Hurricane Cuba? Although the storm formed way back in 1924, the system wasn't classified as a Category 5 storm until 2009 (part of the Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory's Re-Analysis Project updating the particulars of storms between 1851 and 1925)...
   
  
• Out of the 32 Category 5 storms since 1928, one has been in July, seven have been in August, twenty have been in September and four have been in October…
  

• The earliest Category 5 storm on record in the Atlantic was on July 17^th, 2005 (Hurricane Emily). Emily hit the Caribbean, Yucatán Peninsula, northeast Mexico and a very small part of southern Texas…
  

• The latest Category 5 storm on record during a hurricane season is Hurricane Hattie (October 30^th-31^st, 1961). Hattie skipped across the Caribbean, slammed into Belize and killed about 275 people…
  

• Highest chances of a Category 5 hurricane on a particular date: based on historically data, that would be September 13^th and 14^th: four Category 5 storms: Okeechobee (1928), Gilbert (1988), Isabel (2003) and Ivan (2004)…
  
  
• Expand that field to a two week period (September 7^th – 20^th) and there have been 13 Category 5 storms…
  

• To date, there has never been a Category 5 storm recorded in the Atlantic Basin during the hurricane season months of June or November…
  

• Four Category 5 hurricanes have not had their names retired: Emily (2005), Edith (1971), Ethel (1960) and Cleo (1958). The name Cleo was retired after a different storm in 1964; the names Dog and Easy technically weren’t retired as that naming system was only in place from 1950 to 1952…