Hurricanes and Tornadoes That Hit Barceloneta, PR

The nearest NOAA station with 1991–2020 climate normals is Manati 2 E, PR RQ, 6 miles east of Barceloneta at 250 feet. August is the warmest, with an average high of 87°F and low of 72°F; January is the coolest, at 81°F and 66°F. November is the wettest at 7.6 inches of precipitation on average and February the driest at 3.2 inches; the year adds up to 62.1 inches over 109 days with at least a tenth of an inch. June to November, the hurricane season months, bring 53% of the year's precipitation (33.2 of 62.1 inches); the other six months are drier. September has brought the most of the 62 tropical systems that passed within 75 miles (28); a normal September there has highs of 87°F and 5.7 inches of precipitation. Highs reach 90°F on about 39 days a year, almost all from March to October. A night below freezing comes less than once a year on average. That 62.1 inches is more than at 9 of the 21 Puerto Rico stations used on this site (43%). Garrochales, 4 miles west, has its own station (Dos Bocas, PR RQ): 78.2 inches a year, 16.1 more than here, and an August average high of 91°F against 87°F.

Sea level at the San Juan tide gauge, 29 miles from Barceloneta, 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 132 flood, rain, thunderstorm wind and lightning events that began within 10 miles of Barceloneta: 54 flash floods, 47 floods, 20 heavy rain events, 8 thunderstorm wind reports and 3 lightning strikes. They killed 8 people and injured 0, and the NWS estimated $752.7 million in property and crop damage. The strongest thunderstorm gust on record here was 58 mph, on May 21, 2021. May has had the most flash floods, 12 of 54. Of the 86 Puerto Rico cities on this site with a flash flood on record, 18 have had fewer than Barceloneta.

Flood insurance policyholders in Barceloneta's ZIP code 00617 have filed 1,114 claims with the National Flood Insurance Program since 1979, and were paid $6.6 million for buildings and contents, in the dollars of each year. The most came from Hurricane Isabel in 1985: 341 claims (31% of all) and $581,000, then Flooding in 1986 with 302 and Hurricane Georges in 1998 with 243. 91% 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, 67 have fewer than Barceloneta.