Hurricanes and Tornadoes That Hit Cayey, PR

The nearest NOAA station with 1991–2020 climate normals is Aibonito 1 S, PR RQ, 7 miles west of Cayey at 2,330 feet. August is the warmest, with an average high of 82°F and low of 68°F; January is the coolest, at 74°F and 62°F. September is the wettest at 9.4 inches of precipitation on average and February the driest at 3.0 inches; the year adds up to 61.7 inches over 106 days with at least a tenth of an inch. June to November, the hurricane season months, bring 61% of the year's precipitation (37.4 of 61.7 inches); the other six months are drier. September has brought the most of the 62 tropical systems that passed within 75 miles (26); a normal September there has highs of 81°F and 9.4 inches of precipitation. Highs of 90°F are rare: fewer than one day a year on average. A night below freezing comes less than once a year on average. That 61.7 inches is more than at 8 of the 21 Puerto Rico stations used on this site (38%). Guayama, 9 miles south, has its own station (Guayama 2E, PR RQ): 54.5 inches a year, 7.2 less than here, and an August average high of 90°F against 82°F.

Water temperature at the NOAA tide station San Juan, La Puntilla, San Juan Bay, PR, 24 miles north, averaged 86°F in September and 80°F in February over 2021–2025. Sea level at the San Juan tide gauge, 24 miles from Cayey, 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 188 flood, rain, thunderstorm wind and lightning events that began within 10 miles of Cayey: 115 flash floods, 39 floods, 17 heavy rain events, 15 thunderstorm wind reports and 2 lightning strikes. They killed 3 people and injured 0, and the NWS estimated $2.25 billion in property and crop damage. The strongest thunderstorm gust on record here was 51 mph, on February 6, 2024. May has had the most flash floods, 27 of 115. Of the 86 Puerto Rico cities on this site with a flash flood on record, 54 have had fewer than Cayey.

Flood insurance policyholders in Cayey's ZIP code 00736 have filed 80 claims with the National Flood Insurance Program since 1984, and were paid $738,000 for buildings and contents, in the dollars of each year. The most came from Hurricane Georges in 1998: 24 claims (30% of all) and $169,000, then Hurricane Hortense in 1996 with 22 and Flooding in 1992 with 10. 84% 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, 31 have fewer than Cayey.