Tropical Storm Barbara Forms Off Mexico

The National Hurricane Center says Tropical Storm Barbara off the southwestern coast of Mexico could build to hurricane strength within days.

Barbara follows Alvin, the first tropical storm of the eastern Pacific's 2007 season. It's unprecedented for there to be two named eastern Pacific storms in May. The hurricane center has named only two May storms in the past, in 1984 and 1956.

Barbara is about 118 miles south-southwest of the Mexican fishing village of Puerto Angel, and is nearly stationary, with maximum sustained winds of 40 miles-per-hour.

It was unclear whether Barbara would turn toward land or head out to open sea after strengthening, but people living along the western coasts of Mexico and Guatemala should monitor the storm in any case, the hurricane center said.

Meanwhile, Alvin, the first tropical storm of the 2007 season in the eastern Pacific, has been downgraded to a tropical depression. That storm, which formed far off Mexico's western coast on Monday, was heading west, away from land, the hurricane center said.