Ernesto passed over the Yucatán Peninsula on August 8, 2012, as the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite captured this natural-color image. MODIS acquired this image around noon Central Daylight Time on August 8. Ernesto’s spiral arms extended over southeastern Mexico, Guatemala, and Belize.
At 10:00 a.m. CDT on August 9, 2012, the U.S. National Hurricane Center (NHC) reported that Tropical Storm Ernesto was located about 5 miles (10 kilometers) east of Coatzacoalcos, Mexico. The storm had maximum sustained winds of 60 miles (95 kilometers) per hour. The NHC forecast that Ernesto would move inland across southern Mexico, bringing heavy rain to the states of Veracruz, Tabasco, Puebla, and Oaxaca.
NASA image courtesy Jeff Schmaltz, LANCE MODIS Rapid Response Team, Goddard Space Flight Center. Caption by Michon Scott.
