Hurricanes and Tornadoes That Hit Arecibo, PR

The nearest NOAA station with 1991–2020 climate normals is Arecibo Obsy, PR RQ, 8 miles southwest of Arecibo at 1,060 feet. August is the warmest, with an average high of 86°F and low of 67°F; January is the coolest, at 80°F and 61°F. May is the wettest at 10.4 inches of precipitation on average and February the driest at 3.5 inches; the year adds up to 84.6 inches over 124 days with at least a tenth of an inch. June to November, the hurricane season months, bring 58% of the year's precipitation (48.9 of 84.6 inches); the other six months are drier. September has brought the most of the 60 tropical systems that passed within 75 miles (27); a normal September there has highs of 86°F and 9.9 inches of precipitation. Highs reach 90°F on about 33 days a year, almost all from April to October. A night below freezing comes less than once a year on average. That 84.6 inches is more than at 20 of the 21 Puerto Rico stations used on this site (95%). Garrochales, 6 miles east, has its own station (Dos Bocas, PR RQ): 78.2 inches a year, 6.4 less than here, and an August average high of 91°F against 86°F.

Sea level at the San Juan tide gauge, 38 miles from Arecibo, has risen 0.85 ± 0.06 inches per decade from 1962 to 2025, NOAA's linear trend; at that pace it is 8.5 inches in a hundred years. That is faster than at 45 of the 144 U.S. gauges with a NOAA trend.

Since 1996, the National Weather Service has logged 126 flood, rain, thunderstorm wind and lightning events that began within 10 miles of Arecibo: 47 floods, 43 flash floods, 19 heavy rain events, 12 thunderstorm wind reports and 5 lightning strikes. They killed 10 people and injured 1, and the NWS estimated $1.50 billion in property and crop damage. The strongest thunderstorm gust on record here was 49 mph, on September 30, 2012. September has had the most flash floods, 20 of 43. Of the 86 Puerto Rico cities on this site with a flash flood on record, 10 have had fewer than Arecibo.

Flood insurance policyholders in Arecibo's 2 ZIP codes have filed 905 claims with the National Flood Insurance Program since 1978, and were paid $9.8 million for buildings and contents, in the dollars of each year. The most came from Hurricane Isabel in 1985: 246 claims (27% of all) and $820,000, then Hurricane Georges in 1998 with 189 and Flooding in 1985 with 95. 68% of the claims carry the name of a storm or flood event; the rest have no event name. Of the 72 Puerto Rico cities on this site with 10 or more claims, 65 have fewer than Arecibo.