There have been storms that have lasted longer than Hurricane Irma -- and though they are few and far between, there are a few cyclones that have been stronger.
But no other storm in recorded history has maintained top winds of 185 p.m. for 37 hours straight.
Colorado State University hurricane expert Phil Klotzbach says that Irma has broken the previous record, held by Typhoon Haiyan, which had similar top winds for 24 hours before it hit the Philippines and killed 6,000 people in 2013.
Irma also has been the most intense Atlantic hurricane on record outside the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico, measured by its barometric pressure of 914 millibars.