Gulf Braces For Another Blow.

As if the recent oil spill wasn't bad enough, now the gulf braces for possible hurricane weather, as tropical storm Alex gets fired up.
(June 26) -- Tropical Storm Alex, the first named storm of the 2010 Atlantic basin hurricane season, has formed in the northwestern Caribbean. The storm will bring heavy rain and wind to parts of Central America, the Yucatan Peninsula and western Caribbean islands this weekend and will likely redevelop in the southern Gulf of Mexico next week, possibly becoming the first hurricane of the season.

As of Saturday afternoon, Alex, located 310 miles south-southwest of Zihuatanejo, Mexico, had maximum sustained winds of 65 mph. Tropical Storm warnings are in effect for the east coast of the Yucatan Peninsula and the the coast of Belize, as well as some of islands in the western Caribbean.

Heavy rain is often the greatest threat to life and property with a tropical storm, and that's the case with Tropical Storm Alex. As it slowly moves northwestward toward a landfall in northern Belize or the Yucatan Peninsula, more than six inches of rain is possible over a broad area in the Yucatan, Central America and Caribbean Islands. Local amounts of greater than 10 inches are possible.

This amount of rain falling during a relatively short time can result in serious flash flooding and mudslides.

Questions for U.S. interests include where the storm will re-emerge after landfall, whether the system will be able to then intensify into the first hurricane of the season and whether it will affect the region of the Gulf dealing with the massive oil spill.

Meteorologists do not have the answers to those questions yet.