This NOAA satellite image taken Thursday, Sept. 30, 2010 at 1:45 a.m. EDT shows widespread cloud cover over the Eastern Seaboard as an elongated low pressure trough over the East and the remnants of Tropical Storm Nicole usher significant tropical moisture northward, into the region. Deep moisture combines with low pressure located along a frontal boundaries located over the Mid-Atlantic Coast to produce substantial amounts of rainfall from the Carolinas through the Mid-Atlantic. Some showers spread into the southern Northeast. (AP PHOTO/WEATHER UNDERGROUND)

Tropical Storm Nate has formed in the Gulf of Mexico, and authorities have issued a tropical storm warning for parts of Mexico's coast.

The U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami says Nate could
become a hurricane by Friday.

The storm was nearly stationary, moving at just 2 mph (3 kph). Nate is expected to move very little Wednesday and Thursday, and then it will start to move north by Friday.

Nate's maximum sustained winds were at 45 mph (72 kph) Wednesday.

Meanwhile, Tropical Storm Maria was swirling in the western Atlantic.

It was still far from land and was not expected to strengthen in the next couple of days.

Hurricane Katia also continued to blow as a Category 1 storm in the Atlantic and was not expected to hit land.

(Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)