Hurricane Hattie was the strongest and deadliest
tropical cyclone of the
1961 Atlantic hurricane season, reaching a peak intensity equivalent to that of a
Category 5 hurricane. The ninth tropical storm and seventh hurricane and
major hurricane of the season, Hattie originated from an area of
low pressure that strengthened into a tropical storm over the southwestern Caribbean Sea on October 27. Moving generally northward, the storm quickly became a hurricane and later major hurricane the following day. Hattie then turned westward west of
Jamaica and strengthened into a Category 5 hurricane, with
maximum sustained winds of . It weakened to Category 4 before making
landfall south of
Belize City on October 31. The storm turned southwestward and weakened rapidly over the mountainous terrain of Central America, dissipating on November 1.