Hurricane David was an extremely deadly hurricane which caused massive loss of life in the Dominican Republic in August 1979, and was the most intense hurricane to make landfall in the country in recorded history. A Cape Verde hurricane that reached Category 5 hurricane status on the Saffir–Simpson hurricane scale, David was the fourth named tropical cyclone, second hurricane, and first major hurricane of the 1979 Atlantic hurricane season, traversing through the Leeward Islands, Greater Antilles, and East Coast of the United States during late August and early September. David was the first hurricane to affect the Lesser Antilles since Hurricane Inez in 1966. With winds of 175 mph (280 km/h), David was one of only 2 storms of Category 5 intensity to make landfall on the Dominican Republic in the 20th century, the other also being Inez, and the deadliest since the 1930 Dominican Republic hurricane, San Zenon, killing over 2,000 people in its path. In addition, David was the deadliest Dominican tropical cyclone since the 1834 Padre Ruíz hurricane, which killed over 200 people. Meteorological history On August 25, the US National Hurricane Center reported that a tropical depression had developed within an area of disturbed weather, which was located about to the southeast of the Cape Verde Islands. During that day the depression gradually developed further as it moved westwards, under the influence of the subtropical ridge of high pressure that was located to the north of the system before during the next day the NHC reported that the system had become a tropical storm and named it David. Becoming a hurricane on August 27, it moved west-northwestward before entering a period of rapid intensification which brought it to an intensity of 150 mph (240 km/h) on August 28. Slight fluctuations in intensity occurred before the hurricane ravaged the tiny windward Island of Dominica on the following day. David continued west-northwest, and intensified into a Category 5 hurricane in the northeast Caribbean Sea, reaching peak intensity with maximum sustained winds of 175 mph (280 km/h) and minimum central pressure of on August 30. An upper-level trough pulled David northward into Hispaniola as a Category 5 hurricane on the August 31. The eye passed almost directly over Santo Domingo, the capital of the Dominican Republic. David crossed over the island and emerged as a weak hurricane after drenching the islands. After crossing the Windward Passage, David struck eastern