The early stages of Luis's formation is track back to a tropical wave that moved off of Africa on August 26. The next day it became Tropical Depression Thirteen near Cape Verde. It reached Tropical Storm status on the 29th and was named Luis. It reached hurricane status on August 30 and reach category 4 strength on September 2. The next day Luis reached it's highest winds of 150 mph making it a Category 4. Luis continued west and crossed over Barbuda late on September 4. At this time Luis came very close to Antigua, St. Barthelemy, St. Martin and Anguilla. Luis turned northwest and while it was 150 miles to the north of Puerto Rico Luis weakened to a category 2 hurricane, after being a major hurricane for a week. Luis kept slowly weakening and headed to the northeast. While Luis was offshore of Newfoundland he caused a wave more than 98 feet tall. Luis made landfall in eastern Newfoundland on September 11 while a category 1. That same day Luis became extratropical and died near Greenland.