Tropical Storm Joaquin churns north of the Dominican Republic

Miami.- A tropicaldepression churning in the Atlantic Ocean gained strength Monday evening Sept.28 to become the 10th named storm of the season, Tropical Storm Joaquin.

At 10 p.m., theNational Hurricane Center said Joaquin was located about 400 miles northeast ofthe Central Bahamas. It had maximum sustained winds of 40 mph and was movingsouthwest at 5 mph.

Quoted by nola.com, Hurricane SpecialistJohn Cangialosi said shower and thunderstorm activity associated with the stormincreased and became better organized over the last several hours.

Joaquin has beenmoving southwest during the last several hours, and Cangialosi said it shouldbegin moving slowly west overnight. That track should continue for a coupledays, and then it should turn north and accelerate.