Texas-Mexico on hurricane watch

MIAMI, July 13 (UPI) -- A hurricane watch was issued Sunday for the Texas coast from Port O'Connor south to Brownsville, the National Hurricane Center reported.

The Center said tropical storm Claudette had begun a slow, 7-miles-per-hour approach to shore with winds whipping at 60 miles per hour.

The Mexican government also issued a hurricane watch from Rio San Fernando north to the U.S. border, CNN reported.

The tropical storm is already swelling tides near Texas, the Center said.

Center forecasters said they expected Claudette, the third of the Atlantic's tropical storm season, to turn westward in about 24 hours from its west-northwest crawl.

It could make landfall early Tuesday, strengthening as it gets closer to the coast, the forecasters said. Winds could reach hurricane strength, 74 mph, by then.