Hurricanes and Tornadoes That Hit Manati, PR

The nearest NOAA station with 1991–2020 climate normals is Manati 2 E, PR RQ, 1 mile east of Manati at 250 feet. August is the warmest, with an average high of 87°F and low of 72°F; January is the coolest, at 81°F and 66°F. November is the wettest at 7.6 inches of precipitation on average and February the driest at 3.2 inches; the year adds up to 62.1 inches over 109 days with at least a tenth of an inch. June to November, the hurricane season months, bring 53% of the year's precipitation (33.2 of 62.1 inches); the other six months are drier. September has brought the most of the 63 tropical systems that passed within 75 miles (29); a normal September there has highs of 87°F and 5.7 inches of precipitation. Highs reach 90°F on about 39 days a year, almost all from March to October. A night below freezing comes less than once a year on average. That 62.1 inches is more than at 9 of the 21 Puerto Rico stations used on this site (43%). Vega Baja, 6 miles east, has its own station (Palmarejo Vega Baja, PR RQ): 64.5 inches a year, 2.4 more than here, and an August average high of 88°F against 87°F.

Water temperature at the NOAA tide station San Juan, La Puntilla, San Juan Bay, PR, 24 miles east, averaged 86°F in September and 80°F in February over 2021–2025. Sea level at the San Juan tide gauge, 24 miles from Manati, 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 264 flood, rain, thunderstorm wind and lightning events that began within 10 miles of Manati: 113 flash floods, 87 floods, 37 heavy rain events, 24 thunderstorm wind reports and 3 lightning strikes. They killed 8 people and injured 0, and the NWS estimated $753.0 million in property and crop damage. The strongest thunderstorm gust on record here was 58 mph, on June 22, 2015. May has had the most flash floods, 25 of 113. Of the 86 Puerto Rico cities on this site with a flash flood on record, 53 have had fewer than Manati.

Flood insurance policyholders in Manati's ZIP code 00674 have filed 65 claims with the National Flood Insurance Program since 1979, and were paid $291,000 for buildings and contents, in the dollars of each year. The most came from Flooding in 1986: 15 claims (23% of all) and $27,000, then Hurricane Hortense in 1996 with 10. The year with the most claims was 1996, with 10. 77% 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, 29 have fewer than Manati.