Hurricanes and Tornadoes That Hit Santa Isabel, PR

The nearest NOAA station with 1991–2020 climate normals is Ponce 4 E, PR RQ, 9 miles west of Santa Isabel 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%). Coamo, 8 miles north, has its own station (Aibonito 1 S, PR RQ): 61.7 inches a year, 24.1 more than here, and an August average high of 82°F against 92°F.

Sea level at the San Juan tide gauge, 37 miles from Santa Isabel, 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 66 flood, rain, thunderstorm wind and lightning events that began within 10 miles of Santa Isabel: 34 flash floods, 20 floods, 8 heavy rain events, 2 thunderstorm wind reports and 2 lightning strikes. They killed 3 people and injured 5, and the NWS estimated $1.7 million in property and crop damage. The strongest thunderstorm gust on record here was 35 mph, on March 21, 2024. October has had the most flash floods, 10 of 34. Of the 86 Puerto Rico cities on this site with a flash flood on record, 4 have had fewer than Santa Isabel.

Flood insurance policyholders in Santa Isabel's ZIP code 00757 have filed 1,216 claims with the National Flood Insurance Program since 1979, and were paid $2.7 million for buildings and contents, in the dollars of each year. The most came from Hurricane Isabel in 1985: 238 claims (20% of all) and $415,000, then Hurricanes David & Frederic in 1979 with 138 and Flooding in 1986 with 129. 67% 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, 68 have fewer than Santa Isabel.