Hurricanes and Tornadoes That Hit Ponce, PR

The nearest NOAA station with 1991–2020 climate normals is Ponce 4 E, PR RQ, 7 miles east of Ponce at 70 feet. August is the warmest, with an average high of 92°F and low of 69°F; February is the coolest, at 88°F and 62°F. September is the wettest at 6.9 inches of precipitation on average and January the driest at 0.7 inches; the year adds up to 37.6 inches over 60 days with at least a tenth of an inch. June to November, the hurricane season months, bring 69% of the year's precipitation (25.8 of 37.6 inches); the other six months are drier. September has brought the most of the 50 tropical systems that passed within 75 miles (24); a normal September there has highs of 91°F and 6.9 inches of precipitation. Highs reach 90°F on about 210 days a year. A night below freezing comes less than once a year on average. That 37.6 inches is more than at 0 of the 21 Puerto Rico stations used on this site (0%). Penuelas, 7 miles west, has its own station (Adjuntas Substn, PR RQ): 80.2 inches a year, 42.6 more than here, and an August average high of 85°F against 92°F.

Sea level at the Magueyes Island tide gauge, 28 miles from Ponce, 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 164 flood, rain, thunderstorm wind and lightning events that began within 10 miles of Ponce: 65 floods, 61 flash floods, 25 heavy rain events, 11 thunderstorm wind reports and 2 lightning strikes. They killed 4 people and injured 2, and the NWS estimated $501.7 million in property and crop damage. The strongest thunderstorm gust on record here was 60 mph, on November 11, 2024. October has had the most flash floods, 19 of 61. Of the 86 Puerto Rico cities on this site with a flash flood on record, 31 have had fewer than Ponce.

Flood insurance policyholders in Ponce's 5 ZIP codes have filed 532 claims with the National Flood Insurance Program since 1978, and were paid $2.9 million for buildings and contents, in the dollars of each year. The most came from Flooding in 1992: 89 claims (17% of all) and $575,000, then Hurricane Georges in 1998 with 72 and Hurricanes David & Frederic in 1979 with 51. The year with the most claims was 1998, with 73. 59% 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, 61 have fewer than Ponce.