THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE says the storm has a 40 percent chance of becoming a tropical storm with winds of up to 60 mph in the next 48 hours. We are barely into the 2010 Hurricane Season which won't come to an end until November.

Last week we missed the first named Hurricane of the year, "Alex".

The level two storm went ashore at the Mexican fishing village of La Pesca and roared west tearing the roofs off homes in San Fernando and running out of steam when it plowed into the Sierra Madre near Monterrey, Nuevo Leon.

The hurricane dumped 4.97 inches of rain on Raymondville on Thursday but there were no reported injuries or damage as the hurricane winds were all confined to the area south of Brownsville.

Low lying areas of Brownsville and Matamoros, Mexico were flooded and there were six drownings reported near Monterrey, as flood water swept away automobiles and some small homes.

Now, a week after Alex hit last Wednesday, the Rio Grande Valley is once again in the sights of a tropical depression forming near where Alex began, over the state of Yucatan.

The National Weather Service says the storm has a 40 percent chance of becoming a tropical storm with winds of up to 60 mph in the next 48 hours.

"Although this system has changed little in organization over the past several hours ...Environmental conditions appear favorable for development of this disturbance over the next day or two as it moves west, northwest at 10 to 15 mph. There is a medium chance... 40 percent, of this system becoming a tropical storm during the next 48 hours."

Heavy rainfall and gusty winds are possible and some early models show Brownsville in the center of the projected target area should the storm continue to develop, again putting Willacy County on the north (rainy) side of the storm.

Willacy farmers had just begun cutting grain when Hurricane Alex approached last week and only an estimated 15 percent of the harvest is complete. Following Alex the fields are so wet in most cases that the harvest is at a standstill, with harvesting machines mired in the mud.

Another storm at this time would severely threaten the cotton and grain harvests, especially the grain. Even if the storm again misses this area it is likely that the coming week will see heavy rainfall just as last week did.

When grain sorghum stands in water for any length of time the seed begins to sprout and the grain is wothless.

Those who survived last week's scare should send mama out for more bean dip and Shiner beer. We could be in for a long, hot, humid summer.

Meanwhile, the mosquitoes in Raymondville are as bad as at any time since Hurricane Beulah, a Category 5 storm that hit south of Brownsville in Sept, 1967 and dropped 27 inches of rain.

City manager Eleazar "Yogi" Garcia said the city is working hard to spray the city and to control the voracious insects.