A tropical depression formed in the Gulf of Mexico late on Wednesday and was set to
slam into the Gulf Coast near the Texas-Mexico border on Thursday, a region still recovering from Hurricane Alex, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said in a report.

Another serious storm in the Gulf of Mexico could further disrupt efforts to contain BP's massive oil spill off the Louisiana coast.

A tropical storm warning was issued in the lower Rio Grande valley along the border, from south of Baffin Bay, Texas to Rio San Fernando, Mexico. The warning signaled the storm could make landfall within the next 24 hours.

It would be the second named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season after Hurricane Alex battered northern Mexico last week, dumping heavy rains and flooding the major Mexican city of Monterrey in the state of Nuevo Leon, killing 12 people.

Alex, a Category 2 storm when it hit, shuttered some oil and gas production in the Gulf of Mexico as a precaution and delayed BP's efforts to capture oil gushing from its damaged well.

The new depression was expected to drench the border with up to 10 inches (25 cm) of rain in some places and cause strong winds by Thursday afternoon or evening.

Reuters