Name: Flood in Puerto Rico, December 17, 2001
Start: 2001-12-17T14:00
End: 2001-12-17T16:00
Location: Puerto Rico

The toll

Deaths: 0
Injuries: 0
Property damage: None recorded
Crop damage: None recorded
Events: 1

Deaths and injuries are direct and indirect together, as the offices filed them. Damage is property and crops in the dollars of the year, not adjusted for inflation, and only where an office estimated it.

What happened

The episode as NWS SJU wrote it up.

A spotter in San German reported around 2 inches of rain and street flooding.

What forecasters said that day

The local office's own words before the first event, as it sent them, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service text.

NWS San Juan, PR wrote its last area forecast discussion before the first event at Dec 17, 11:10 AM AST, 2 hours 50 minutes earlier.

Area forecast discussion, Dec 17, 11:10 AM AST, 2 hours 50 minutes before

AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE SAN JUAN PR
1110 AM AST MON DEC 17 2001

MID LEVEL TROUGHING CONTINUES NEARLY WEST TO EAST ACROSS LOCAL CARIB
WATERS THIS MORNING AND IS AIDING IN LOW TO MID LEVEL CONVERGENCE
FOR SUSTAINED INSTABILITY ACROSS THE LOCAL AREA. ADDITIONALLY...AN
OLD WEAK CONVERGENCE BOUNDARY HAS BEEN PUSHED INTO LOCAL ATLANTIC
WATERS PAST 12 HOURS AS HIGH PRESSURE BUILDING BEHIND W ATLANTIC
COLD FRONT BRIDGES INTO THE REGION...FORMING A SHEAR LINE ALIGNED
WEST TO EAST ACROSS THE LOCAL ATLANTIC WATERS. THIS SHEAR LINE MAY
SINK FARTHER SOUTH THIS AFTERNOON TO PRODUCE FREQUENT PASSING
SHOWERS WITH ISOLATED TSTORMS. LOW LEVEL MOISTURE ASSOCIATED WITH
SHEAR LINE FORECAST TO LINGER ACROSS THE AREA THROUGH TUESDAY BEFORE
BEGINNING A MILD DRYING TREND INTO WEDNESDAY. HOWEVER...LOW TO MID
LEVEL HIGH BUILDING OFF OF SOUTHEAST U.S. WILL FORCE MID LEVEL
TROUGHING SOUTHWARD THIS EVENING AND TONIGHT...PRODUCING MID LEVEL
DRYING AND SUBSIDENCE AND LIKELY A SIGNIFICANTLY MORE STABLE MID TO
UPPER ATMOSPHERE. THIS PROCESS ALREADY APPARENT IN COMPARISON OF 12Z
SJU AND TNCM SOUNDINGS. AM MAKING VERY MINOR ADJUSTMENTS TO FORECAST
THIS MORNING BUT NO SIGNIFICANT CHANGES NEEDED.

FFA DROPPED EARLIER THIS MORNING AS FLASH FLOOD SUSCEPTIBLE AREAS
NOT RECEIVING MUCH RAIN PAST 6-12 HOURS...AND THIS WATCH HAD
REMAINED IN EFFECT FOR MORE THAN 2 DAYS NOW. HOWEVER...SMALL AND
SPECIFIC PORTIONS OF THE LOCAL AREA WILL LIKELY GO BACK UNDER A
WATCH THIS AFTERNOON AS DIURNAL ENHANCEMENT OF SHOWERS INTO
THUNDERSTORMS BEGINS TO OCCUR. FLASH FLOOD GUIDANCE STILL SUGGESTING
1 TO 1.5 BASIN WIDE PRECIP TOTALS PER HOUR ACROSS EASTERN P.R. WILL
INDUCE FLOODING...AND WITH SOGGY MUDDY SOILS STILL PRESENT...WOULD
BELIEVE THESE VALUES.

.SJU...
.PR...SCA AMZ710-720.
.VI...SCA AMZ710-720.

70

WRITTEN TEXT FORECASTS (IN ENGLISH OR SPANISH)...SATELLITE IMAGERY
...DOPPLER RADAR DATA...AND A VIRTUAL LIBRARY OF WEATHER INFORMATION
CAN BE FOUND AT THE NWS SAN JUAN WEB SITE AT:

HTTP://WWW.SRH.NOAA.GOV/SJU (ALL LOWER CASE).

Event by event

1 flood. Local standard time, as filed.

Flood, Mayaguez and Vicinity

When: December 17, 2:00 PM AST to 4:00 PM AST
Where: Mayaguez and Vicinity County, San German
Reported by: TRAINED SPOTTER

What these are

Flood: Flooding that develops more slowly than a flash flood: rivers leaving their banks, or water standing over land for an extended time.

After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.

The same day elsewhere

More

Every storm in Puerto Rico in 2001 Every state in 2001 This day in weather history Warnings in Puerto Rico, December 2001

Sources

NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database, compiled from the National Weather Service’s monthly Storm Data. Complete through 2026-06; NCEI adds each month about 75 days after it ends and revises past years a few times a year. Rebuilt 2026-09-24. Each event’s entry at NCEI: 5275365.