Tropical Storm Lorenzo formed off Mexico's Gulf Coast on Thursday, and the area was put under a storm warning.A storm-monitoring airplane found that the previously formed tropical depression strengthened and had top sustained winds of 97 kilometers per hour (kph) at 1800 GMT, the Miami-based National Hurricane Center (NHC) said. A tropical storm becomes a hurricane once its sustained winds reach 119 kph.Lorenzo was centered about 210 kilometers east-southeast of Tuxpan and 210 kilometers southeast of Cabo Rojo. The storm was moving west-southwest at near 5 kph, and was expected to continue in that general direction, the NHC said.The Mexican government issued a tropical storm warning, meaning winds of 63 to 118 kph were possible within the next 24 hours. The storm was expected to produce as much as 38 centimeters of rain over the Mexican state of Veracruz.Meanwhile, Tropical Storm Karen weakened slightly in the Atlantic Ocean. The storm's center was less than 1,500 kilometers east of the eastern Caribbean at 1800 GMT and moving west-northwest near 19 kph. Its maximum sustained winds had decreased from 113 kph to 105 kph, and some further weakening was forecast.
