Tropical Storm Irene Could Become Hurricane

 

Tropical Storm Irene, the ninth named storm of the 2011 Atlantic hurricane season, formed on Saturday east of the Caribbean's Leeward Islands and was heading westward, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said.

At 7 p.m, the storm was packing winds near 50 miles per hour and was about 190 miles east of Dominica, the Miami-based hurricane center said.

Irene's forecast track would pass near or over Puerto Rico and mountainous Hispaniola, the island shared by the Dominican Republic and Haiti, and the storm could be over the Florida Keys by late next week, forecasters say. It could develop into the first hurricane of the 2011 Atlantic season.

Depending on its eventual path, Irene could pose a threat to the United States or U.S. oil and gas installations in the Gulf of Mexico.