In passing across Florida, Katrina did not attain any more strength but did manage to maintain hurricane status. After passing over Florida, the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico allowed it to rapidly intensify to the sixth-strongest Atlantic hurricane in recorded history. Afterward, Katrina made landfall as a Category 3 storm near Buras-Triumph, Louisiana, and once more near the Mississippi/Louisiana border. Katrina progressed northward through the central United States and finally dissipated near the Great Lakes on August 31, when it was absorbed by a cold front.