Hurricanes and Tornadoes That Hit Ciales, PR

The nearest NOAA station with 1991–2020 climate normals is Palmarejo Vega Baja, PR RQ, 7 miles northeast of Ciales at 560 feet. August is the warmest, with an average high of 88°F and low of 73°F; January is the coolest, at 82°F and 66°F. September is the wettest at 7.3 inches of precipitation on average and February the driest at 3.3 inches; the year adds up to 64.5 inches over 124 days with at least a tenth of an inch. June to November, the hurricane season months, bring 55% of the year's precipitation (35.4 of 64.5 inches); the other six months are drier. September has brought the most of the 60 tropical systems that passed within 75 miles (28); a normal September there has highs of 88°F and 7.3 inches of precipitation. Highs reach 90°F on about 47 days a year, almost all from April to October. A night below freezing comes less than once a year on average. That 64.5 inches is more than at 11 of the 21 Puerto Rico stations used on this site (52%). Florida, 6 miles northwest, has its own station (Dos Bocas, PR RQ): 78.2 inches a year, 13.7 more than here, and an August average high of 91°F against 88°F.

Sea level at the San Juan tide gauge, 27 miles from Ciales, 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 167 flood, rain, thunderstorm wind and lightning events that began within 10 miles of Ciales: 70 flash floods, 50 floods, 26 heavy rain events, 16 thunderstorm wind reports and 5 lightning strikes. They killed 10 people and injured 0, and the NWS estimated $3.3 million in property and crop damage. The strongest thunderstorm gust on record here was 58 mph, on May 22, 2021. May has had the most flash floods, 16 of 70. Of the 86 Puerto Rico cities on this site with a flash flood on record, 39 have had fewer than Ciales.

Flood insurance policyholders in Ciales's ZIP code 00638 have filed 17 claims with the National Flood Insurance Program since 1979, and were paid $102,000 for buildings and contents, in the dollars of each year. 76% 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, 7 have fewer than Ciales.