Aug. 16 (Bloomberg) — Dean, the Atlantic season’s first hurricane, formed east of the Caribbean’s Lesser Antilles, while in the Gulf of Mexico, Tropical Storm Erin approached Texas.
Dean was 485 miles (780 kilometers) east of Barbados at 5 a.m. Miami time, and heading west at 24 mph, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said in an advisory on its Web site. The system’s sustained winds strengthened to 75 mph from 70 mph earlier today, taking it past the 74 mph threshold for a hurricane. The hurricane season runs from June 1 to Nov. 30.
“Dean is a big concern, primarily right now for the Lesser Antilles,’’ Jamie Rhome, a hurricane specialist at the center in Miami said today in a phone interview. “It could become a major hurricane over the next few days over the central Caribbean.’’
The center predicted “additional’’ strengthening over the next day, as Dean heads to the Lesser Antilles, which extend south from the Virgin Islands to Trinidad and Tobago.