The system was first spotted east of the Lesser Antilles as a weak tropical storm on July 22. Moving northwest, the tropical storm passed near Dominica with winds of before entering the eastern Caribbean. It reached hurricane status at 06:00 UTC on July 23, and a short while later passed just south of Puerto Rico. The cyclone attained its first peak of before hitting Cabo Rojo early on July 24. San Juan recorded maximum winds of around and a low barometric pressure of as the eye of the hurricane passed near the extreme southwest corner of Puerto Rico. The storm continued northwest and tracked just east of Hispaniola, losing some intensity to land interaction; by 18:00 UTC on July 24 its winds diminished to . However, the storm began rapid re-intensification as it moved over the Turks and Caicos Islands early on July 25.