Tropical Storm Dean strengthened into the 2007 Atlantic storm season's first hurricane on Thursday as it revved up over warm waters and raced toward Caribbean islands, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said.
The hurricane, with top sustained winds of 75 miles per hour (120 km per hour) by 5:00 a.m. EDT/0900 GMT, was expected to strengthen further over coming days and could pass to the south of Jamaica on Monday as a Category 4 hurricane with 131 mph (210 kph) winds.
