Maria, the 15th named tropical cyclone of the 2017 Atlantic Hurricane Season, formed as a tropical storm on 16 September at 2100UTC, east-southeast of the Lesser Antilles. It was upgraded to hurricane status on 17 September at 2100UTC. Maria intensified moving across the Atlantic Ocean and reached the Leeward Islands near Dominica as a major hurricane (category 5) on Monday 18 September at approximately 2345UTC.