A Hurricane warning has been issued for parts of Texas and Mexico

Tropical Storm Dolly was headed toward Texas and Mexico at 8:45 p.m. ET on Monday (above).

A flurry of warnings were issued along the coasts of Texas and Mexico late Monday as Tropical Storm Dolly advanced across the Gulf of Mexico, forecasters with the National Hurricane Center said.

Hurricane warnings were in effect along about 200 miles of coastline from Rio San Fernando in Mexico northward to Port O’Connor, Texas. A hurricane warning means that hurricane conditions are expected within the warning area within the next 24 hours.

Tropical storm warnings stretched south of Rio San Fernando to La Pesca, Mexico and north of Port O’Connor to San Luis Pass, Texas.

At 11 p.m., the storm with its 50 mph winds was centered about 320 miles (515 km) east of La Pesca and about 435 miles (695 km) southeast of Corpus Christi, Texas. Dolly is expected to slowly strengthen.

The storm was galloping to the west near 17 mph, but is expected to slow and turn to the northwest on Wednesday.

The hurricane center’s tracking map shows the storm coming ashore Wednesday, around the Texas-Mexico border. Visit the CNN hurricane center at http://topics.cnn.com/topics/National_Hurricane_Center .

“All odds are now that we’re looking at Category 1 hurricane on the Texas coast by midday Wednesday,” said Bill Read, director of the hurricane center.

Watch as Dolly is expected to strengthen over the Gulf of Mexico at http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/weather/07/21/tropical.weather/index.html#cnnSTCVideo .

A Category 1 hurricane carries sustained winds between 74-95 mph (119-153 km/h.)

Meanwhile, Tropical Storm Cristobal paralleled the Atlantic Seaboard as it slowly began losing steam.

At 11 p.m., Cristobal was speeding toward the east-northeast near 16 mph, about about 360 miles east-northeast of Cape Hatteras North Carolina and about 575 miles southwest of Halifax, Nova Scotia.

The storm was packing 60 mph winds, but is expected to weaken over the next 24 hours.

The Atlantic hurricane season began June 1 and runs through November.

Copyright 2008 CNN

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