Fast-moving Hurricane Dean, the first hurricane in the Atlantic this season, has just passed through the Lesser Antilles via the St. Lucia Channel between Martinique and St. Lucia and has entered the eastern Caribbean Sea.
Wind gusts have been at least as high as 89 mph on Martinique.
Dean has top sustained winds of 100 mph; a category 2 on the Saffir-Simpson scale. Some additional strengthening is possible today, especially as Dean continues to move west of the Antilles.
As Dean races westward across the Caribbean, it has the potential to reach "major" hurricane status by early Saturday. It may threaten Jamaica and the Cayman Islands during the latter half of the weekend and into Monday. Those vacationing and residents of the Yucatan Peninsula and Cozumel should also keep a concerned eye towards Dean for early in the upcoming week.
~~Adz:Right~~ It is too early to tell what, if any, impacts Dean will have on the United States but all along the Gulf Coast will want to keep monitoring Dean through the weekend into next week. Heavy rain and thunderstorms, from the remnants of Tropical Storm Erin, will increase through this morning, and into the afternoon over much of Texas.
Yesterday, some localized areas in the surrounding metros of both San Antonio and Houston reported up to 9.6 inches of rain.
Today the Houston area could see another inch or so, with areas such as San Antonio and Austin picking up an additional 2 to 3 inches. This will likely bring more flash flooding and increase the risk of river flooding today. In the western Pacific all eyes are watching Super Typhoon Sepat as it approaches Taiwan.
Still bringing heavy flooding rain and very high dangerous surf to the northern end of Luzon, Sepat now is increasingly focusing it fury on the island nation of Taiwan as a major typhoon with destructive wind, damaging surf and flooding rain. All those planning to visit Taiwan should take high interest in Sepat's track and time of landfall later today (U.S. eastern time).
Sepat may then push into eastern China with a concern for more flooding rain.
