Tropical Storm 16 gaining strength

MIAMI, Oct. 15 (UPI) -- Tropical storm warnings have been dropped for northern Belize and Honduras as Tropical Depression 16 headed west Wednesday, U.S. forecasters said.

Both countries issued warnings for their coastlines earlier in the day. A tropical storm warning remained in effect for southern Belize to the Guatemala-Honduras border, the U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami reported.

At 5 p.m. the center of the depression had winds of 35 mph and was about 25 miles south-southeast of Limon, Honduras, and about 215 miles east of Monkey River Town, Belize. It was moving west about 7 mph., forecasters said.

Strengthening to tropical storm status with sustained winds of more than 39 mph was expected by Wednesday night, the report said.

Rainfall of as much as 8 inches was possible over northeastern Nicaragua, northern Honduras, Belize, Guatemala and the Yucatan Peninsula with isolated rainfall up to 15 inches, the report said.

If the depression reaches tropical storm status, it will be named Paloma.