Hurricane Irma passed close to the Dominican Republic on 8 September, narrowly missing the island. The edges of the Category 5 storm still brought heavy rain and damaging winds.

The storm tore through the Caribbean leaving devastation in some of the Dominican Republic's neighbouring nations.

Irma originated from a tropical storm which developed on 30 August 2017, and quickly developed into a full Category 5 storm. Category 5 is the highest grade on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale, and indicates a storm that could cause catastrophic damage.

Much of the country was put on red alert in advance of the storm, but while Irma did not cause major damage and no casualties were reported, 24,000 people were forced to evacuate their homes due to flooding and a bridge connecting the Dominican Republic and Haiti was severed by the storm.