Hurricanes and Tornadoes That Hit Carolina, PR

The nearest NOAA station with 1991–2020 climate normals is WFO San Juan, PR RQ, 3 miles northwest of Carolina at 10 feet. August is the warmest, with an average high of 89°F and low of 77°F; January and February are the coolest, at 83°F and 70°F. November is the wettest at 7.9 inches of precipitation on average and March the driest at 2.7 inches; the year adds up to 65.4 inches over 123 days with at least a tenth of an inch. June to November, the hurricane season months, bring 58% of the year's precipitation (37.9 of 65.4 inches); the other six months are drier. September has brought the most of the 65 tropical systems that passed within 75 miles (27); a normal September there has highs of 89°F and 6.4 inches of precipitation. Highs reach 90°F on about 60 days a year, almost all from March to November. A night below freezing comes less than once a year on average. That 65.4 inches is more than at 13 of the 21 Puerto Rico stations used on this site (62%). Trujillo Alto, 4 miles southwest, has its own station (Trujillo Alto 2 SSW, PR RQ): 72.9 inches a year, 7.5 more than here, and the same August average high, 89°F.

Water temperature at the NOAA tide station San Juan, La Puntilla, San Juan Bay, PR, 11 miles northwest, averaged 86°F in September and 80°F in February over 2021–2025. Sea level at the San Juan tide gauge, 11 miles from Carolina, 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 815 flood, rain, thunderstorm wind and lightning events that began within 10 miles of Carolina: 359 flash floods, 348 floods, 65 heavy rain events, 36 thunderstorm wind reports and 7 lightning strikes. They killed 2 people and injured 4, and the NWS estimated $3.00 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, 66 of 359. Of the 86 Puerto Rico cities on this site with a flash flood on record, 79 have had fewer than Carolina.

Flood insurance policyholders in Carolina's 5 ZIP codes have filed 965 claims with the National Flood Insurance Program since 1979, and were paid $4.0 million for buildings and contents, in the dollars of each year. The most came from Hurricane Georges in 1998: 349 claims (36% of all) and $201,000, then Hurricane Hortense in 1996 with 199 and Hurricane Irene in 2011 with 141. 83% 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, 66 have fewer than Carolina.