Hurricane Earl began as a tropical wave that was tracked by the National Hurricane Surface (NHC) from the African Coast to the Caribbean Sea. The tropical wave drenched the Dominican Republic where it was blamed for the deaths of six people. Southwest of Jamaica on August 2, 2016 the tropical wave developed a closed circulation and Earl was upgraded to a tropical storm. On Wednesday August 3, 2016 Earl became a hurricane when it was located about 150 miles east of Belize. On Thursday Earl made landfall just southwest of Belize City, Belize at about 0600 UTC (2 AM EDT). At landfall Earl had winds of about 70 kts (~81 mph). Earl weakened to tropical depression intensity over the Yucatan but regained tropical storm wind speeds of about 50 kts (~58 mph) when it emerged over the Bay of Campeche. On Saturday August 6, 2016 Earl hit Mexico again just south of Veracruz, Mexico. Earl was then disrupted by Mexico's rough terrain and dissipated.

Rainfall from Earl caused the deaths of at least 28 people from mudslides in the mountains north of Mexico's Puebla state. The remnants of Earl interacted with an area of disturbed weather along the Pacific coast of Mexico and aided in the formation of a tropical depression that became tropical storm Javier on August 7, 2016. By then the death toll from Earl's remnants had reached 39.

Data from NASA's Integrated Multi-satellitE Retrievals for GPM (IMERG) were used to estimate the amount of rain that fell from August 2-8, 2016. This analysis shows the period from when Earl became a tropical storm until Earl's remnants interacted with an area of disturbed weather along the Pacific coast. This IMERG analysis shows the extreme amount of rain that was dropped by Earl over Belize, Guatemala, eastern Mexico and Mexico's Pacific coast. Earl's locations and intensites, as defined by the National Hurricane Center (NHC), are shown overlaid in white.

Click here to see a 1280x720 (Quicktime) IMERG Rainfall accumulation.

Click here to see an 1280x720 (MPEG) IMERG Rainfall accumulation.