Irene strengthened into the first hurricane of 2011 early Monday, dumping heavy rain as it moved toward the Dominican Republic and Haiti, with Florida a distant potential target. The storm was forecast to drop up to 10 inches of rain on much of the Caribbean, from Puerto Rico to the Turks and Caicos, where the government of the Bahamas issued a hurricane warning. As of 11 a.m. Monday, the storm, with nearly 80 mph sustained winds, was located north about 105 miles west-northwest of San Juan, Puerto Rico, moving northwest at about 13 mph. It was expected to skim the north coast of the Dominican Republic on Monday afternoon. The Hurricane Center dropped the tropical storm warning for the British and U.S. Virgin Islands on Monday morning. Read more: http://www.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/americas/08/22/tropical.weather/index.html?hpt=hp_t2
