Hurricanes and Tornadoes That Hit Mayaguez, PR

The nearest NOAA station with 1991–2020 climate normals is Mayaguez City, PR RQ, 1 mile south of Mayaguez at 74 feet. August is the warmest, with an average high of 90°F and low of 72°F; January is the coolest, at 85°F and 68°F. August is the wettest at 6.8 inches of precipitation on average and January the driest at 1.2 inches; the year adds up to 51.3 inches over 86 days with at least a tenth of an inch. June to November, the hurricane season months, bring 66% of the year's precipitation (34.0 of 51.3 inches); the other six months are drier. September has brought the most of the 50 tropical systems that passed within 75 miles (23); a normal September there has highs of 90°F and 6.6 inches of precipitation. Highs reach 90°F on about 134 days a year. A night below freezing comes less than once a year on average. That 51.3 inches is more than at 5 of the 21 Puerto Rico stations used on this site (24%). Anasco, 6 miles north, has its own station (Coloso, PR RQ): 77.6 inches a year, 26.3 more than here, and an August average high of 89°F against 90°F.

Water temperature at the NOAA tide station Mayaguez, PR, 2 miles northwest, averaged 87°F in September and 81°F in February over 2021–2025. Sea level at the Magueyes Island tide gauge, 17 miles from Mayaguez, has risen 0.81 ± 0.06 inches per decade from 1955 to 2025, NOAA's linear trend; at that pace it is 8.1 inches in a hundred years. That is faster than at 41 of the 144 U.S. gauges with a NOAA trend.

Since 1996, the National Weather Service has logged 223 flood, rain, thunderstorm wind and lightning events that began within 10 miles of Mayaguez: 97 floods, 59 flash floods, 37 thunderstorm wind reports, 26 heavy rain events and 4 lightning strikes. They killed 5 people and injured 7, and the NWS estimated $1.52 billion in property and crop damage. The strongest thunderstorm gust on record here was 52 mph, on July 17, 2010. July has had the most flash floods, 13 of 59. Of the 86 Puerto Rico cities on this site with a flash flood on record, 27 have had fewer than Mayaguez.

Flood insurance policyholders in Mayaguez's 2 ZIP codes have filed 350 claims with the National Flood Insurance Program since 1978, and were paid $3.1 million for buildings and contents, in the dollars of each year. The most came from Hurricane Georges in 1998: 138 claims (39% of all) and $1.2 million, then Hurricane Maria in 2017 with 25 and Hurricanes David & Frederic in 1979 with 18. 64% 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, 57 have fewer than Mayaguez.