Hurricane Laura tied the record for the strongest hurricane to make landfall in Louisiana as measured by maximum sustained winds, along with the 1856 Last Island hurricane and Hurricane Ida, and was overall the tenth-strongest hurricane to make landfall in the United States. The thirteenth tropical cyclone, twelfth named storm, fourth hurricane, and first major hurricane of the 2020 Atlantic hurricane season, Laura originated from a large tropical wave that moved off the West African coast on August 16. The tropical wave gradually organized, becoming a tropical depression on August 20. Though in only a marginally conducive environment for intensification, the depression nevertheless intensified into a tropical storm a day later, becoming the earliest twelfth named storm on record in the North Atlantic basin, forming eight days earlier than 1995's Hurricane Luis. The depression received the name Laura and tracked west-northwest towards the Lesser Antilles. Laura first hit the Lesser Antilles and brushed Puerto Rico as a tropical storm, before it moved across the island of Hispaniola. The storm killed 21 people in Haiti and four in the Dominican Republic. The storm later moved across the length of Cuba, while maintaining its intensity as convection was mainly to the south of the island, although its outer rainbands extended into the Florida Keys and South Florida. Laura moved across the Gulf of Mexico, strengthening slowly at first, before a period of rapid intensification began on August 26. That day, Laura became a major hurricane, and later attained peak winds of , making it a strong Category 4 hurricane, with its pressure bottoming out at . Early on August 27, Laura made landfall near peak intensity on Cameron, Louisiana with winds, with a minimum central pressure of . It quickly weakened over land, degrading to a tropical storm over Northwestern Louisiana before dropping to tropical depression status near Pine Bluff, Arkansas on August 28. It turned eastward and became a remnant low over Kentucky on August 29 before being absorbed by an extratropical low over Maryland several hours later. Origins, early development, and Lesser Antilles landfalls On August 16, a large tropical wave moved off the coast of Africa. The same day, the National Hurricane Center noted the possibility of tropical development as the wave neared more favorable conditions, with the 5-day development chance being estimated at 20%. The next day, the wave entered more favorable developmental conditions and the NHC raised