Tropical storm Octave approaches Baja California: Arriving tomorrow?

Tropical storm Octave drew closer to Mexico's Baja California peninsula on Monday, weakening slightly on its approach.

The storm, about 175 miles south of Cabo San Lazaro on the peninsula's western coast, was traveling north at about 13 miles per hour, Miami's National Hurricane Center (NHC) said in its latest advisory.

Octave had maximum sustained wind speeds of up to 60 miles per hour, down slightly from Sunday night, and the storm was expected to approach the peninsula's west coast sometime on Tuesday, the NHC said.

Mexico's government has issued a tropical storm warning for the southwestern coast of Baja California, from the town of Santa Fe north to Punta Abreojos.

The storm is expected to cause rainfall of between 3 and 8 inches (7.6 and 20.3 cm) along much of the peninsula and an accompanying storm surge "will be accompanied by large and destructive waves," the center said.

All of Mexico's Pacific coast ports remained open on Monday, according to the country's transportation ministry.

Mexico was pummeled by some of the worst flood damage in decades last month after storms converged from the Pacific and Atlantic, triggering mud-slides and killing about 150 people.

(Reporting by David Alire Garcia; Edting by Simon Gardner and Bill Trott)