The center of Hurricane Tomas was moving through the Windward Passage. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) instrument aboard NASA’s Terra satellite captured a visible image of Hurricane Tomas at 15:30 UTC (11:30 a.m. EDT), just before it started moving through the Windward Passage.

Located in the Caribbean Sea, the Windward Passage is a strait located between eastern Cuba and the northwest of Haiti.

In satellite imagery, Tomas’ convection (rapidly rising air that forms the thunderstorms that power the tropical cyclone) was described by the National Hurricane Center as "looking a little ragged" hinting that they are weaker and possibly more disorganized, due to the interaction with the mountains of Hispaniola.