Heavy Rain — Culebra, Puerto Rico

2009-11-16 · near Culebra, Culebra, Puerto Rico

Event narrative

A resident of Culebra Island indicated through an on-line web site that since 1:30 am the island had received 9.60 inches of rain, and that at times the rain was falling at rates faster than two inches an hour. He also indicated the soil was saturated, and the run-off was turning the bay an ugly brown.

Wider weather episode

The tail end of a prefrontal boundary pushed into the local area during the early morning, bringing unstable weather conditions. Favorable upper level wind flow combined with the sea breeze to produced numerous showers and thunderstorms across the San Juan metropolitan area. Very heavy rains lead to significant rainfall accumulations and runoff in a short period of time, producing flash flooding. Many local roads were impassable for several hours and some rivers in the San Juan area metro area overflowed their banks. Flooded homes and automobiles were reported, and some ground floor stores in the San Patricio area of Guaynabo. The flooding along the river Rio Piedras in the San Juan Metro Area was extreme as motorists were forced to abandon their cars on flooded roadways. According to preliminary USGS data, the Rio Piedras river exceeded flood stage at the El Senorial and Hato Rey locations. The Hato Rey USGS precipitation sensor recorded close to 3.5 inches between 1230 and 1530 AST. Las Curias at Damsite near Rio Piedras recorded 4.44 inches between 1315 and 1645 AST.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (18.3200, -65.2800)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 203341. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.