Hurricanes and Tornadoes That Hit Caguas, PR

The nearest NOAA station with 1991–2020 climate normals is Gurabo Substn, PR RQ, 4 miles northeast of Caguas at 160 feet. August is the warmest, with an average high of 91°F and low of 71°F; February is the coolest, at 85°F and 61°F. September is the wettest at 8.7 inches of precipitation on average and February the driest at 2.6 inches; the year adds up to 64.7 inches over 109 days with at least a tenth of an inch. June to November, the hurricane season months, bring 63% of the year's precipitation (40.6 of 64.7 inches); the other six months are drier. September has brought the most of the 65 tropical systems that passed within 75 miles (28); a normal September there has highs of 90°F and 8.7 inches of precipitation. Highs reach 90°F on about 155 days a year. A night below freezing comes less than once a year on average. That 64.7 inches is more than at 12 of the 21 Puerto Rico stations used on this site (57%). San Lorenzo, 7 miles southeast, has its own station (Juncos 1 SE, PR RQ): 67.5 inches a year, 2.8 more than here, and an August average high of 89°F against 91°F.

Water temperature at the NOAA tide station San Juan, La Puntilla, San Juan Bay, PR, 17 miles north, averaged 86°F in September and 80°F in February over 2021–2025. Sea level at the San Juan tide gauge, 17 miles from Caguas, 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 297 flood, rain, thunderstorm wind and lightning events that began within 10 miles of Caguas: 155 flash floods, 91 floods, 26 heavy rain events, 23 thunderstorm wind reports and 2 lightning strikes. They killed 4 people and injured 1, and the NWS estimated $1.51 billion in property and crop damage. The strongest thunderstorm gust on record here was 60 mph, on May 14, 2011. May has had the most flash floods, 30 of 155. Of the 86 Puerto Rico cities on this site with a flash flood on record, 59 have had fewer than Caguas.

Flood insurance policyholders in Caguas's 2 ZIP codes have filed 230 claims with the National Flood Insurance Program since 1979, and were paid $1.4 million for buildings and contents, in the dollars of each year. The most came from Hurricane Hortense in 1996: 64 claims (28% of all) and $435,000, then Hurricane Georges in 1998 with 48 and Hurricane Maria in 2017 with 18. 74% 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, 51 have fewer than Caguas.