Hurricanes and Tornadoes That Hit Luquillo, PR

The nearest NOAA station with 1991–2020 climate normals is Roosevelt Roads, PR RQ, 9 miles southeast of Luquillo at 33 feet. August is the warmest, with an average high of 89°F and low of 78°F; January is the coolest, at 83°F and 71°F. May is the wettest at 6.7 inches of precipitation on average and March the driest at 1.8 inches; the year adds up to 50.9 inches over 98 days with at least a tenth of an inch. June to November, the hurricane season months, bring 61% of the year's precipitation (30.8 of 50.9 inches); the other six months are drier. September has brought the most of the 63 tropical systems that passed within 75 miles (25); a normal September there has highs of 89°F and 6.4 inches of precipitation. Highs reach 90°F on about 63 days a year, almost all from April to November. A night below freezing comes less than once a year on average. That 50.9 inches is more than at 4 of the 21 Puerto Rico stations used on this site (19%). Rio Grande, 7 miles west, has its own station (Juncos 1 SE, PR RQ): 67.5 inches a year, 16.6 more than here, and the same August average high, 89°F.

Water temperature at the NOAA tide station Esperanza, Vieques Island, PR, 25 miles southeast, averaged 87°F in September and 80°F in February over 2021–2025. Sea level at the San Juan tide gauge, 27 miles from Luquillo, 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 280 flood, rain, thunderstorm wind and lightning events that began within 10 miles of Luquillo: 187 flash floods, 71 floods, 19 heavy rain events, 2 thunderstorm wind reports and 1 lightning strike. They killed 4 people and injured 6, and the NWS estimated $751.9 million in property and crop damage. The strongest thunderstorm gust on record here was 61 mph, on May 14, 2011. April has had the most flash floods, 28 of 187. Of the 86 Puerto Rico cities on this site with a flash flood on record, 66 have had fewer than Luquillo.

Flood insurance policyholders in Luquillo's ZIP code 00773 have filed 39 claims with the National Flood Insurance Program since 1979, and were paid $122,000 for buildings and contents, in the dollars of each year. The most came from Hurricane Georges in 1998: 10 claims (26% of all) and $7,042. 62% 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, 22 have fewer than Luquillo.