Hurricanes and Tornadoes That Hit Utuado, PR

The nearest NOAA station with 1991–2020 climate normals is Dos Bocas, PR RQ, 5 miles northeast of Utuado at 200 feet. August is the warmest, with an average high of 91°F and low of 71°F; February is the coolest, at 86°F and 64°F. May is the wettest at 10.2 inches of precipitation on average and February the driest at 3.5 inches; the year adds up to 78.2 inches over 117 days with at least a tenth of an inch. June to November, the hurricane season months, bring 57% of the year's precipitation (44.8 of 78.2 inches); the other six months are drier. September has brought the most of the 57 tropical systems that passed within 75 miles (27); a normal September there has highs of 91°F and 9.7 inches of precipitation. Highs reach 90°F on about 104 days a year, almost all from February to December. A night below freezing comes less than once a year on average. That 78.2 inches is more than at 18 of the 21 Puerto Rico stations used on this site (86%). Adjuntas, 7 miles southwest, has its own station (Adjuntas Substn, PR RQ): 80.2 inches a year, 2.0 more than here, and an August average high of 85°F against 91°F.

Sea level at the Magueyes Island tide gauge, 31 miles from Utuado, 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 113 flood, rain, thunderstorm wind and lightning events that began within 10 miles of Utuado: 49 flash floods, 29 floods, 19 heavy rain events, 15 thunderstorm wind reports and 1 lightning strike. They killed 4 people and injured 1, and the NWS estimated $2.00 billion in property and crop damage. The strongest thunderstorm gust on record here was 49 mph, on September 10, 2009. October has had the most flash floods, 15 of 49. Of the 86 Puerto Rico cities on this site with a flash flood on record, 15 have had fewer than Utuado.

Flood insurance policyholders in Utuado's ZIP code 00641 have filed 160 claims with the National Flood Insurance Program since 1979, and were paid $1.2 million for buildings and contents, in the dollars of each year. The most came from Hurricane Georges in 1998: 98 claims (61% of all) and $718,000, then Flooding in 1985 with 21 and Hurricane Maria in 2017 with 13. 91% 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, 43 have fewer than Utuado.