Hurricane Edith was the strongest hurricane to form during the 1971 Atlantic hurricane season and formerly the southernmost landfalling Category 5 hurricane on record in the Atlantic until 2007. Edith also stands as one of the only Category 5 Atlantic hurricanes to not have its name retired, next to 1953's Hurricane Carol, 1961's Hurricane Esther, 2005's Hurricane Emily, and 2019's Hurricane Lorenzo. Edith developed from a tropical wave on September 5 and quickly strengthened into a hurricane in the Caribbean Sea. Edith rapidly intensified on September 9 and made landfall on Cape Gracias a Dios as a Category 5 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale. Being a category 5 hurricane, Edith peaked at only 943 mbar (hPa), making Edith the least intense category 5 Atlantic hurricane on record. It quickly lost intensity over Central America and after briefly entering the Gulf of Honduras it crossed the Yucatán Peninsula in Mexico. After moving across the Gulf of Mexico a trough turned the storm to the northeast and Edith, after having restrengthened while accelerating towards the coast, made landfall on Louisiana with winds of on September 16. Edith steadily weakened over land and dissipated over Georgia on September 18. The hurricane killed two people when it passed near Aruba. Striking northeastern Central America as a Category 5 hurricane, Edith destroyed hundreds of homes and killed at least 35 people. In Texas high tides caused coastal flooding but little damage. Edith caused moderate to heavy damage in portions of Louisiana due to flooding and a tornado outbreak from the storm. One tornado, rated F3 on the Fujita Scale, damaged several homes and injured multiple people in Baton Rouge. The tornado outbreak extended eastward into Florida, of which a few destroyed entire buildings. Damage in the United States totaled US$25 million (1971 dollars$, in dollars). Meteorological history A tropical wave moved off the coast of Africa near Dakar on August 31. It moved westward into the Intertropical Convergence Zone, and organized into a tropical disturbance on September 2 with a small, circular area of convection. The system moved to the west, and on September 3, the convection diminished after moving west of 40° W. By the next day, the tropical disturbance was barely discernible from the clouds of the Intertropical Convergence Zone. The wave gradually became detached from the ITCZ, and based on a reconnaissance flight that confirmed the existence of a low-level circulation,